ISLAMABAD, July 7: Pakistan and Finland have decided to sign an "Investment Treaty" that will initially attract $300 million investment from Finland. Official sources told Dawn here on Wednesday that both the countries have successfully negotiated the proposed investment treaty which was expected to be signed within next two months.

A three-member delegation from Finland headed by Mr Jukka Nyster, senior director in the Finn foreign office concluded discussions with the officials of the Board of Investment (BoI) for signing the treaty.

Over 90 per cent formalities have been discussed and agreed upon to sign the investment treaty. The sources said that the manufacturers of Nokia mobile phones have expressed their willingness to begin their operations by investing $250 million to $300 million in Pakistan within this year.

"We were assured that Nokia would set up its new plant in Pakistan to manufacture cellular phones due to cheap labour available and other facilities to be offered by the government of Pakistan," a source said.

Since labour in Finland was very expensive, Finland after making investment in China and India, the sources said, was now considering to set up a huge manufacturing plant in Pakistan.

Sources said favourable "ground rules" for investors from Finland were being finalized to help attract sizable investment from that country. "The government of Pakistan will give guarantee and protection to the investment from Finland," a source said adding that Finland which has just 60 million population was very much interested to forge better trade and economic relations with Pakistan.

He said Finland was an emerging industrial country after the advanced countries like Germany and France and was looking for more "safe investment" in third world countries like Pakistan.

The investors from Finland would also assess opportunities for entering into joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts. With the visit of President Musharraf, the bilateral trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Finland will expand which otherwise were not currently up to the expectations, the sources said.