Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) Saleem Mandviwala has said that Pakistan has lost $60 billion worth of investment during the last three years due to the ongoing war on terror coupled with deteriorating law and order situation.
Talking exclusively to Profit, he said that due to the unfavorable environment for investment, the country was witnessing a decreasing trend in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Mandviwala explained that foreign investors are not ready to invest in the country due to security concerns and owing to rent seekers that are worsening the situation due to flight of capital.
He said that there is an unseen tussle for a conclusive mandate between the BoI and federal ministries as BoI was not welcomed by them when it asked them to resolve and streamline the process and issues of foreign investors. “Actually some ministries do not want BoI to exist as they consider us intruders into their domain. BoI is providing one window opportunity to foreign investors, and pushing ministries to resolve investor’s issues”.
BoI is planning to give an exclusive briefing to President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani in order to convince them to give BoI the mandate to approve investment projects in the country, especially foreign investment. He explained that this step would revolutionise the investment process when foreign investor would be facilitated through one window operation of BoI.
Mandviwala laments that unfortunately BoI has become the grievance board of investment as investors come to us to resolve their grievance which is certainly not the role of BoI as it should focus on measures to bring foreign investment in the country.
The BoI Chairman said that BoI have succeeded in diluting the negative impression to some extent about investment in Pakistan among foreign investors. He claimed that the performance and activity of BoI was unprecedented in history. He agreed though, that foreign investment is declining and stressed that BoI, by broadening its role in the last three years have succeeded in bringing record investment from its platform. He said that by starting a dialogue between the stakeholders, BoI have gained identity and visibility among the investors.
Saleem Mandviwala said that unfortunately past governments did not recognise the real potential of this organisation due to which it could not perform the way it was supposed to. Now the present government has recognized the potential of BoI and has established its office at PM Secretariat.
Out of total investment, 85 per cent belongs to local investors while only 15 per cent belongs to foreign investors a figure that needs to go up. He said that in this scenario BoI certainly should not ignore the needs of domestic investors.
Talking about the barriers and delays BoI is facing, Chairman said that two projects of $550 million were getting delayed due to red tape. In this fast globalising world, he asked how they could expect an investor to freeze his investment when he has other, better alternatives.
While briefing regarding future activities for promotion of investment, he said that BoI is organising conferences with Pakistan’s Foreign Missions in order to find out ways and means to attract foreign investment into the country. He said due to such steps BoI will be able to deliver better.
He said United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the request of Pakistan is organising an investment conference on November 30th at Murree where investors from all over UAE will participate and interact with businessmen to identify better opportunities for investment here in Pakistan.
He said that BoI has been able to sign a successful deal between South Korea’s largest steelmaker Company POSCO Limited and Tuwairqi Steel Mills according to which POSCO would invest $200 million for the expansion of Tuwairqi Steel Mills. He hopes that Korea is soon going to be the biggest investor in Pakistan.
The BoI Chairman said that Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Bill is likely to be approved by parliament till December. He said that SEZs would not only aid in bringing investment to the country but BoI would play a key role in implementing all the projects. He said that as a Nation we have to go for out of the box solutions to enable our country to achieve sustainable growth. The Chairman said that it is not right to ask BoI about the annual investment target when everybody knows that the right of investment stays with the investor, BoI can only facilitate.
