“The engines of growth in a developing country are agriculture, SMEs and real estate. Pakistan is actively developing in the area of agriculture and SMEs but there is a lot of potential in the real estate sector in which investment can be made.”
This was stated by Yaseen Anwar, Governor State Bank of Pakistan, in a seminar in Singapore. He further said that the challenges are there but it is the optimism which will help Pakistan in its economic development. To a question on Islamic banking system he said that it has tremendous potential in Pakistan. There are some Islamic Banks interested investing in the agriculture sector of Pakistan.
The seminar on “Future Pakistan: Business Today” was jointly organized by High Commission of Pakistan, Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) on Wednesday, 22 August 2012. The seminar aimed to discuss trends, opportunities and challenges on business and investment in Pakistan.
Shahid Javed Burkhi, Chairman of Institute of Public Policy Lahore and senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies Singapore, in his key note address, said that Pakistan was the test case for the development economies around the world 30 years ago, now it has become one of the least developed economies in South Asia, as it lacks good governess, engulfed in corruption and facing energy crisis. He emphasized that to increase the GDP growth rate, we need a short term and long term policy frame work, which should focus on Institutional reforms that aims to begin in three areas. First and the most urgent is the reform of the fiscal system, levying a consumption tax. The second area would be to reform the system of accountability by giving its leadership autonomy and protection.
Pakistan High Commissioner in Singapore, Syed Hasan Javed, in his closing remarks stated that Pakistan-ASEAN trade has doubled over the past four years from US $ 4 billion in 2008 to US $ 8 billion. Pakistan’s 70% imports come from Asia, while its 40% exports go to Asia. Exports from Singapore to Pakistan grew by 48% to US $ 2 billion during July 2011-June 2012. Pakistan and Singapore have 16 cooperation agreements and Pakistan is gateway to nearly half of the world’s population in China, India, Central Asia and West Asia. Moreover, Pakistan is the world’s most promising emerging market with unbeatable advantages. Rate of returns in Pakistan’s Stock Market has been highest in the world in US dollar terms over the past 10 years.
There are 800 Multinational companies in Pakistan. Since 2008 more than 100 Multinational companies have entered Pakistan including El Courte of Spain, Spanish brand ‘Mango’, Marketing giant Ispos, IT firm Teradata, British Chain store ‘Moda In Pelle’ and ‘Debenhams’, US Clothing chain Georgegenti and others. More Singaporean companies are looking at Pakistan as potentially the next Star Economy of Asia.
Real estate has investment potential in Pakistan: SBP governor
