LONDON, March 4: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Ali Jatoi said on Thursday that 19 well-established companies had shown interest in making investment in the power sector.

Addressing a press conference here at a local hotel, Jatoi said these companies including some domestic investors had shown interest after a road show on power generation which concluded here on Wednesday. Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Sindh Minister for Mining Irfan Khan Marwat and Federal Secretary Water and Power were also present on the occasion.

Jatoi said he was expecting $3.5 billion investment which could generate 3500mw electricity once gas was available. The government would soon take a decision for importing gas from Qatar and Iran, he said.

The companies showing interest to invest in power sector included GLOBELEQ, UK, International Power UK, General Electric US, Wartsilla Finland, ACTIS UK, AES Electric Limited, Brazil Energy, BHP, Scott Wilson, Senaie Holdings, Ibrahim Fibros, Ghulam Farooq, Nishat Group, Kohinoor Maple, United Bank Ltd, Bestway Group UK, Standard Charted Bank, Shell and Fauji Foundation (Pak).

During meetings with potential investors in London and Dubai, he said, the response was very good because the country was offering best possible investment opportunities to investors by cutting customs duties and provision of one window operation to tackle hiccups faced by them. Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) is there to help those investors facing some difficulties.

Brazil Energy, he said, had also shown interest in investment in the three power projects in Uch, Faisalabad and Lahore. Uch Power Project has the capacity of 500mw, Faisalabad Power Project 450mw capacity while Lahore Power Project has 300mw capacity.

Jatoi said in view of the growing energy demand, the government had decided to utilize gas, hydel, coal, windmill and even furnace oil for catering to growing needs of the power sector.

The country has the potential of producing 40,000mw electricity through its Hydel resources but at the moment it is generating only 6,000mw of power. He said the report of a technical committee which was set up to give recommendations to exploit hydel resources of the country was being awaited.

Jaoti said his ministry had decided to accept internal bids in a transparent manner which had eliminated any possibility of underhand deals. This has been very successful because investors now get the best deal through an open biding and competitiveness.

Jatoi said he would soon announce first ever Water Policy to preserve water resources of the country and check losses through its better management. He told another questioner that there was 1800 mw of surplus energy now and there was no load-shedding of power in the country. -APP