May 11, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 10: Argentina has offered investment in water and power sector in addition to promoting tourism in NWFP.

The offer was made by Argentinean ambassador in Pakistan Rodolfo Martin Saravia the Federal Minister for Water and Power and Tourism, Raja Pervez Ashraf in Islamabad on Friday.

The ambassador also offered to invest in the Basha Dam and send technical expertise for the dam, saying that the Argentinean investors are also keen in power projects in Chitral and NWFP.

The Argentinean Ambassador said that the investors were aware of the energy crisis world over and informed the minister that his country had great experience in hydel and thermal power generation particularly in construction of dams and offered that his government would provide any possible assistance to Pakistan in this regard.

The Argentinean investors were also looking for investment in the tourism sector and in this regard ready to develop areas near Basha dam, in Chitral and other beautiful sites in other parts of the country to attract tourists, he said.

Ambassador Saravia invited the Minister to visit Argentina and negotiate deals with the investors.

Earlier, the Minister welcomed the Ambassador and apprised him of the current energy situation in the country. He said that the new political government of Pakistan was determined to facilitate foreign investment in water and power sector.

He said that today Pakistan was facing great challenges especially in power sector and need about 4000 to 6000mw additional power per day to meet the demand of electricity.