‘Conducive environment essential to FDI’

KARACHI
A major factor preventing foreign direct investment is the deteriorating security situation in the country. Security threats prevent investment but no apparent effort is seen by the government to address conditions and perception on the ground.
These remarks were made by the Chairman of Ahmed Jaffer & Company and President of the Pakistan Japan Business Forum (PJBF) Abdul Kader Jaffer, while talking to Pakistan Today in an exclusive interview.
He said that Japanese corporations were seemingly, very interested in investing in Pakistan. Jaffer underlined the fact that Honda was planning to invest $150 million to establish a plant at the National Industrial Park, with a keen eye on export manufacture.
The PJBF also showed interest in acquiring 500 acres for the development of an industrial zone at Bin Qasim Industrial Park (BQIP) as part of a sustainable business project.
He believed that establishment of export oriented industries was the need of the hour and the PJBF was at the forefront of this effort. He lamented that the poor law and order situation was a major hurdle in attracting investment. “I have spoken to many Japanese corporations to expand their operations within Pakistan and extend training facilities.
However the Japanese are not willing to come to Pakistan,” he added. Talking about the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Jaffer evaluated the impact of the government’s decision. He pointed out that in order to tap Japanese investment; the government of Pakistan announced the establishment of an exclusive Special Economic Zone solely for Japanese investors in 2007.
It was planned that the 2,500 acres Japanese Village at Port Qasim would provide a host of tax incentives, exemptions and facilities. However, the government simply allocated land but failed to create a suitable environment for investment, disregarding the formulation of any rules and regulations.
Speaking on how he became involved in the Pak-Japan Business Forum (PJBF), he indicated that in 1999, Japanese Ambassador S Numata, approached him and asked for assistance in the establishment of a business forum. They were like-minded in believing that the private sectors of both the countries should collaborate and enhance their relations in the sphere of industrial, technological and bilateral trade.
An outline of the forum was quickly sketched. A constitution of the forum was quickly fleshed out and the Japanese Ambassador made the body’s patron. But before the forum took firm roots, President Musharraf appointed him high commissioner to the UK. The forum was finally launched on February 6, 2001.
Highlighting the efforts of the PJBF, he indicated that the core function of the organisation was to foster awareness. About 100 people are sent to Japan for high-quality training annually. To further augment the experience, a battery of lectures is delivered by experts in their respective fields.
He said the purpose of the forum was to encourage and promote trade, mutual understanding and a close ties between the business communities of Pakistan and Japan. This forum has great potential in the promotion of interests of both parties. Recently, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) indicated its desire to ramp up training to Pakistani professionals and further Pakistan’s economic development.
JETRO also supports a program called Association of Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) through which Pakistani professionals have also trained in Japan in various fields.
A Pak-Japan Joint Business Dialogue also came underway creating a joint study group to promote bilateral trade and investment. The group compiled a report which determined the effective steps that must be taken by governments and the private sectors of both countries to facilitate bilateral trade and investment.
He cited the important role that private enterprise must play in the effort to rehabilitate displaced refugees from the flood affected regions and shepherd the nation out the morass it has become bogged down in. “Pakistan is caught in an impossible situation, we know that our authorities are not trusted by foreign institutions,” he noted.
Mistrust has mounted and festered, so Pakistan needs to burnish its image. “We have to rebuild Pakistan and now we have a good opportunity. I would say, let the international institutions come to Pakistan and let them play their role for the betterment of the country, its people, its institutes and its image,” he reasoned.