KARACHI: Italian government has agreed to provide a credit line equivalent to $10 billion for Italian investors willing to invest in Pakistan.

This was stated by the Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) Saleem H Mandviwalla while addressing a press conference here Saturday.

BoI chairman, who accompanied President Asif Ali Zardari during his recent official visit to Italy, said that talks with the Italian Embassy for materializing this credit line have now been initiated and hoped that this fund will be ready in the next six months.

He said that this credit line has been promised by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in response to a request by President Asif Ali Zardari during a bilateral meeting in Rome.

Mandviwalla said that this request was well received by the Italian premier and Mr Berlusconi also promised that he will bring a large delegation of leading Italian investors to Pakistan.

He hoped that this fund will help in boosting Italian investment in Pakistan in a big way.

The BoI chairman said that leading Italian companies have shown keen interest in having joint ventures in Pakistan during a meeting with the president.

He pointed out that a Pak-Italy Chamber will be established in the next two years.

Talking of his meetings with leading South Korean firms including Daewoo, Hyundai, LOTTE and K Water, he said that they are keen to invest in Pakistan.

The chief executive of LOTTE has indicated that his company was willing to invest at least $10 billion in Pakistan by way of acquisitions in next five years.

They have already purchased Pak PTA and plan to invest another $300 million to acquire food and raw material companies in Pakistan, he added.

Similarly, the BoI chairman said that K Water was willing to construct dams in Pakistan and Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO) was interested in power generation and distribution in Pakistan.

He, however, said that terrorist activities were the cause of concern for the foreign investors.—APP