Pakistan investors’ destination of choice: PM

Islamabad, Pakistan | September 27, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that Pakistan has become a destination of choice for investors due to consistency of policies and a wide-ranging structural reform agenda based on de-regulation, liberalization, privatisation and transparency, reported the Associated Press of Pakistan recently.

The Prime Minister was talking to Moriji Kanada, President Metal One Corporation of Japan, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi and Sojitz groups, who called on him at the Governor House earlier this month. Metal One Corporation of Japan is the world’s largest steel trading company with an annual turnover of $24 billion, which has invested in a modern steel plant to be built at Karachi.

The PM said record foreign investment of $8.4 billion in Pakistan last year clearly indicated the trust of investors in the policies initiated by the present government. He said Pakistan now stands on a solid footing and has strong fundamentals as well as substantive structural reforms to attract more investments.

Aziz said all economic indicators are showing positive trend in Pakistan and during last five years, the per capita income and size of economy had doubled. The country’s currency is strong, reserves have crossed $16 billion, exports and remittances have increased while inflation and poverty are reducing, he added.

He said Pakistan has a unique demographic advantage over other countries of having 100 million of its population below the age of 25. “Because of economic turnaround achieved by Pakistan during the last five years, the middle class is growing and the country offers attractive investment opportunities in several sectors including telecom, IT, oil and gas, financial services, engineering, agribusiness and real estate,” he added.

The PM also mentioned Pakistan’s location at the confluence of three of the most important regions of the world i.e. Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East which gives the country a competitive edge in the region.

He said because of high economic growth during the last few years and expansion in various fields particularly the construction sector, the demand for steel products had sharply increased. He said the government was improving logistics chain to improve productivity and competitiveness of the industrial sector. Under the National Trade Corridor plan, he said, improvements are being made in the system of railways, roads and highways. He said the government had recently launched Vision 2030 programme aimed at socio-economic transformation of the country and envisaging a developed, industrialized, prosperous Pakistan through rapid and sustainable development.

About Pakistan’s relations with Japan, Shaukat said Pakistan and Japan always enjoyed close relations and the two countries should work for further strengthening of the existing relations to open up new vistas of cooperation in all fields. He said Japan is an important trade and development partner of Pakistan as it always supported in challenging times and provided the largest number of development loans. He said Pakistan appreciated the investment of the Mitsubishi Group in Pakistan and hoped that the group would avail more business opportunities in the country.

He was apprised that Cold Roll Steel Mill whose ground-breaking ceremony would take place later today will produce a type of steel not currently under production in Pakistan. Besides its import substitution benefits the project will generate employment opportunities.

Moriji Kanada told the PM that this would be the fifth venture the group was undertaking in Pakistan. He also briefed him about the details of the project and appreciated the economic policies of the government. Other members of the delegation included Masaharu Domichi, Country Head, Mitsubishi Corporation and Yoshikazu Uda, Chairman Aisha Steel Mills Ltd.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Commander (Retd) Khalil ur Rahman, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Tariq Azeem Khan and senior officials also attended the meeting.

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