Pakistan has huge potential for investment: Dar

Minister for Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that Pakistan has huge potential for investment in a range of sectors where the foreign investors can exploit the opportunities.

Addressing the concluding session of the two-day Pakistan Investment Conference, the minister said this was high time for investors as according to a report of a world renowned institute, Pakistan would become the second choicest place for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

He said the current government had a clear vision of promoting business in the country and it had taken multiple initiatives to bring reforms in various sectors.

He said the government also encouraged financial inclusion and public-private partnership so the investors could take advantage of the opportunity.

Dar also sought proposals from the audiences to suggest to the government regarding ease of doing business in the country.

The finance minister said that the government would endeavor to improve the country’s ranking in ease of doing business and bring it to around 100.

He said the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would bring over $45 billion in the country and a number of countries around the world were contacting the Pakistan government to enter into this mega project as the project would not only benefit the two countries but it would also be beneficial for the entire region.

He said that currently, the government was working on different energy projects of about 24,000 MW of electricity and by March 2018, 10,600 MW would be added to the system while in the next four years the rest of the electricity would be ready to be included in the national grid.

He said that before the year 2013, the country was on the verge of becoming a defaulter as the foreign exchange reserves had gone down to below $8 billion and no international monetary institution was ready to lend money to the country.

However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), after coming into power, worked hard to bring the country out of the financial crisis, he said.

“Within a short span of two years, the country has made immense progress as the energy crisis has considerably eased, forex reserves have touched $20 billion mark, a record in the country’s history, fiscal deficit has come down from 8.8 percent to 5 percent, and inflation rate has reduced from above 10 percent to record 1.3 percent.”

Moreover, the minister said, the tax to GDP ratio had also increased from 9 percent to 11 percent and revenue growth rate had also surged from 3 percent to 15 percent.

Now the world renowned fiscal institutions were praising Pakistan for its amazing economic development and had rated its economy as stable, he said.

Meanwhile addressing the fourth session of the conference, Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan said that Pakistan had almost overcome the challenges of extremism and energy crisis and its economy was also stabilizing.

“Pakistan’s economy is stabilizing as all the international ratings agencies and institutes have termed the country’s economy as positive to stable,” said Khurram Dastgir Khan.

Dastagir said that according to the vision of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, negotiations for Free Trade Agreements (FTA) had also been initiated with Thailand and Turkey.

He said that under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan would be connected with China and five Central Asian energy rich states which would also benefit the regional and global trade.

He said work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline would commence next month, which would cater to the energy needs of the country.

He said that the Free Trade Agreement-2 (FTA-2) was also being negotiated with China in order to review different aspects of the existing FTA.

The minister said that after the decade long period of unrest in the country, Pakistan, under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had begun to be reconnected with the world through economic diplomacy, infrastructure, new agreements and democratic stabilization.

Khurram said the government recognized the importance of interregional connectivity and of enhancing regional trade with all the countries in the region for economic growth and stability of the country.

He said that Pakistan was not only a proponent of the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade facilitation agreement but had also initiated necessary reforms to create a facilitative environment for trade.