LONDON, Aug 6: Foreign investors, seizing the initiative of making Pakistan as the hub of their business can derive great dividends by utilizing its strategic location and attractive investment opportunities , said Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain Dr Maleeha Lodhi.

She was speaking at the "Investment Forum", organized by NETSOL Technologies Inc., at a local hotel late Thursday. NETSOL has already made over $10 million investment in Information Technology sector in Pakistan.

"There are great challenges but immense opportunities as well hence those with courage and vision can exploit the Pakistani market to reap the benefits," she said. Development of IT, she said, was one of the priorities of the government which had brought about an economic turnaround and was committed to build on its achievements.

President Pervez Musharraf, she said, had stated categorically that he was pro-business and asked the bureaucracy to cut red-tapism in the way of investors. She said investors positioning themselves well in time would be able to exploit the opening business opportunities in South Asia in the future.

The South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) had already inked the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) which would promote regional trade. Maleeha said the country's textile industry had equipped itself to face the challenges of a quota-free regime in 2005 by investing over $4 billion in industrial modernization. Hence, it was well positioned to compete with others.

She said the government was now moving to the next phase of its economic revival to encourage more foreign direct investment which would create more jobs for the people. She said promotion of investment and trade relations between London and Islamabad were one of her top priorities.

She said efforts were also being made to ensure that benefits of economic growth filter down to the poor sections of the society which was imperative to improve their standards of life.

Speaking on the occasion Najeeb U. Ghauri, Chairman of NESTOL Technologies Inc, said their group was soon going to introduce Internet Broadband in Pakistan within two to three weeks on monthly payment basis. He said they have found great investment opportunities there and was doing a good business for many past years. -APP