Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has shown concern over the falling foreign direct invest (FDI), which has declined by 26 percent during the first quarter of this financial year and called upon the government to take urgent measures to improve inflows of FDI.
ICCI President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri said that Pakistan received FDI of just $169 million during July to September 2014, which was “highly disappointing”. This has happened despite the fact that many sectors of Pakistan’s economy including energy, infrastructure development, agriculture, oil and gas and mineral were offered huge investment opportunities, but the government could not evolve an effective strategy to attract potential investors.
Sabri said as per World Bank Report 2013, China achieved net FDI inflows of 3.8 percent of its GDP, India 1.5 percent, Bangladesh 1.2 percent, Sri Lanka 1.4 percent while Pakistan managed to achieve net FDI inflows of just 0.6 percent of its GDP. He termed the lack of good governance, energy crisis, political turmoil, security challenges, inconsistency in policies and complicated business registration processes as the major factors that were discouraging FDI in Pakistan and stressed that government should take urgent measures to address these issues in order to attract FDI inflows.
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