The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Limited (PIBT) Thursday signed an investment agreement to construct the country’s first fully-automated multipurpose non-food dry bulk cargo terminal at Port Qasim at a huge cost of $ 185 million. As per agreement, of the total investment the IFC would contribute $ 19 million in the form of equity share and $ 26.5 million in debt.
The deal was inked here at the Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) by Chairman and Managing Director of Marine Group of Companies Capt. Haleem A. Siddiqui and Aasim A. Siddiqui and Dimitris Tsitsiragos, IFC Vice President for Europe, Middle East and North Africa in the presence of dignitaries from the shipping and corporate sector.
According to Dimitris, to the IFC Pakistan was a priority country where the Corporation’s average annual investment ranged from $ 500 to $ 600 million. “Pakistan is an important country for IFC where we last year ramped up our investment to $ 1.2 billion,” the IFC official said. He said having a huge potential for growth Pakistan however was lacking the participation of private sector especially in infrastructure development.
He said the Corporation was financing various energy and agriculture-related projects in Pakistan where about 10 percent of its annual $ 500 million investment would be utilized for agriculture sector development.
“This one is IFC’s largest equity operation in a port project world over,” to generate economic activity in the region as well as Pakistan, said Dimitris.
Chairman Marine Group of Companies Capt. Haleem A. Siddiqui thanked and told the gathering that the IFC’s was the first ever private sector investment agreement in Pakistan saying his was the only group investing in infrastructure development of the country. Siddiqui said after completion in 2015 the terminal would handle all cargoes which would provide fuel to the local industries.
Earlier, thanking the IFC and Jahangir Siddiqui Group for providing “seed capital” for the PBIT and PICT, MD Marine Group of Companies Aasim A. Siddiqui said the proposed facility would be constructed on Built-Operate-Transfer basis having an annual 12 million cargo handling capacity.
Others who spoke included the chairmen of Karachi Port Trust Aslam Hayat and Port Qasim Authority Vice Admiral (Retd) Muhammad Shafi and director JS Group Ali Siddiqui.
