KARACHI, Dec 12: The American ambassador in Pakistan Mr Ryan Crocker said on Tuesday that Washington was working to finalise bilateral investment treaty with Pakistan that would usher-in a new phase of bilateral economic relations leading to FTA.

He said this while addressing members of the Institute of Business Administration’s alumni at the residence of Consul General Mary H. Witt. He said many US companies were interested in investing in Pakistan and they wanted to know how safe their investment would be.

But he emphasised the need for giving due attention and importance to intellectual property rights as American businessmen and investors were very much concerned about security of their investment and products.

The US ambassador referred to the high-level energy dialogue presently going on between the two countries. This was many faceted and included the possibility of US cooperating in developing coal-based energy sources in Pakistan besides gas, oil and other alternative sources of energy.

However, he did not talk about the possibility of US assistance for developing nuclear energy source for civilian and peaceful purposes.

Mr Crocker also pointed out that Washington was working for the reconstruction of the border areas and the quake’ hit areas. He pointed out that next month the US would initiate legislation for realising the objective.

“We are working with Pakistan to develop opportunity zones in the border area to support people living there,” he said.

The US ambassador revealed that next month a Pakistani educationist would travel to the USA to study community school education system there. And on return will suggest ways to benefit from that system for developing good education system in Balochistan and Sindh.