KARACHI, Aug 8: State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Husain has called upon chief executives of multinationals and members of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry to take the benefit of favourable investment policies of Pakistan for mutual benefit.

Speaking to the members of the overseas chamber here on Monday, the SBP governor said that the situation of street crimes was worst in Washington DC where during his 20 years of stay, he was unable to visit four city areas after dusk owing to threat of mugging, car snatching and harassing but there was no dearth of investment. Why these street crimes are linked with the foreign investment in Karachi, he asked.

About travel advisories, Dr Ishrat said that the outgoing American counsel-general had told him that they had changed the nature of travel advisories and allowed the Americans having business deals and those who were supposed to be received by a group of Pakistanis to visit the country. He had asked that only tourists were asked not to visit, as any mishap making them victim of some unscrupulous elements, would ruin the image of Pakistan.

Responding to complaints about the rising inflation rate, the SBP chief explained the phenomenon and working of the monetary policy. However, he said though the high inflation pushed the prices of inputs up, why don’t businessmen look at the output where the end price was also going up.

Dr Ishrat said that the measures taken to regulate the foreign exchange regime and monetary policy had resulted in stability in the foreign exchange rate, bringing it to three-four per cent from 20-21 per cent for the prime clients. He pointed out that the building up of foreign exchange reserves from a little over one billion dollars to over $12 billion and cash payment of $17 billion for the import of machinery helped bring the borrowing cost down from 21 to four per cent.

Dr Ishrat said that investors in the Karachi Stock Exchange were getting $5-6 million from the portfolio investment, which was even higher than that when the index had surpassed 10,000 points level.

Responding to a query, he said there was no harm in opening trade with India, but as part of the government he thought trade should be the part of the whole package of dialogues. Allowing the import of sugar from India and byroad trade of several items was a big step taken by the government, he added, pointing out that it would help improve the supply line at competitive cost.

Talking about the future oil price trend, he said the present prices carried a 15 to 20 per cent risk premium of various international conflicts and disputes. If the geo-political situation improves, the oil prices would slip down to 35 to 40 dollar a barrel, he said.—APP