TOKYO – President Asif Ali Zardari has invited a number of Japan’s leading auto manufacturers to invest in Pakistan as automobile sector in the country is flourishing with the passage of time. Presidents and chief executive officers of different automobile and auto-parts companies, including Toyota Tshusho, Mitsubishi Corporation and Yamaha Motors, called on the President Zardari here on Wednesday.
Speaking to the representatives of different automobile companies, President Zardari said that Pakistan was providing attractive investment opportunities in various sectors and had set up a special economic zone at an area of 2,000 acres near Karachi for Japanese investors. He pointed out that Pakistan offered attractive facilities and complete security to foreign investors.
A land of 170 million people with cheap and skilled workforce as well as liberal export incentives offered great opportunities to Japanese investors, he underlined. President Zardari said that Pakistan would prove an investment hub for foreign investors from where they could export their products to Central Asian States, China, India and Middle East while Pakistani people would get employment opportunities.
“Pakistan needs better trade terms with foreign investors and seeks resources and support of Japanese entrepreneurs to access its products to the international markets”, Zardari said and pointed out that Pakistan’s major imports from Japan were motor vehicles, auto parts and industrial and power generation machinery.
He said Pakistan valued Japanese investment and economic cooperation in various fields and keen to further boost it. He emphasised that with an attractive package of tax incentives, investments in Pakistan were given comprehensive legal protection. Japanese investors could benefit from the liberal policies of Pakistan, he added.
The President said Pakistan was an energy deficient country and its deficiency could be an opportunity for foreign investment. “Pakistan has huge coal deposits of 180 billion metric tonnes in southeast of the country and similarly the southern coast provides tremendous potential of wind energy. Other key sectors offering profitable ventures are agriculture, infrastructure development and mining,” Zardari indicated.
He said Japan was the fourth largest investment partner of Pakistan and major sectors of Japanese investment were joint venture projects mainly in the automobile sector, including Pak Suzuki Motors, Indus Motors (Toyota), Honda Atlas Cars (Honda), Gandhara Nissan Diesel (Nissan Diesel), Hino Pak Motors (Hino).
Speaking on the occasion, Toyota Tsuhsho (auto parts trading house) President Junzo Shimizu said that his company would take benefits from the attractive and liberal policies of the government of Pakistan and would invest in auto spare parts sector. Mitsubishi Corporation Japan President Kenkasa Yashi said that his company was keen to enhance its investment in various fields.
He said that Mitsubishi was the first Japanese company which started business in Pakistan, adding, Mitsubishi was investing in five different sectors in Pakistan, including automobile and chemical sectors. He said his company was encouraged by the liberal investment and trade policies of the present government and looking forward to increase its investment.
Yamaha Motors President Hiroyuki Yanagi said that Yamaha would spend $150 million for setting up a new plant at 50 acres plot in Bin Qasim near Karachi. He said Yamaha would bring advanced technology to Pakistan where initially 22,000 motorcycles of 125-150 cc, per year, would be manufactured in the factory with EFI engines and during the next ten years its production would reach to 750,000.
The company would also provide comprehensive training, technical education to its employees, dealers and vendors. He said annual production of Yamaha Motors includes 500,000 cars, 25,000 trucks/buses, 40,000 units of light carriage vehicles (LCV) and 50,000 agriculture tractors. He said the project would create huge employment opportunity where 45,000 people would get jobs.
Japan is the fourth largest investment partner of Pakistan with cumulative investment of $385.9 million during 1989-90 to 2003-2004, constituting five percent of the total investment in Pakistan. The big surge of investment observed in 1995-96 in Independent Power Producers (IPP) projects.
The Japanese investment recovered and increased by seven percent during 2002-03 to 2003-04 due to the increase of investment in the automobile sector. Japanese investment in the automobile sector grew by more than 5.5 times in 2003-04 in comparison with the previous year (2002-03) to meet the great domestic demand of automobiles.
