Dubai: Finance Minister of Pakistan Senator Ishaq Dar has urged foreign investors, including expatriates, to invest in his country, which now offers attractive investment opportunities especially in the energy sector.
“Pakistan is back in business and on track to recover from economic crisis,” Dar said, while addressing a gathering of prominent Pakistani businessmen in Dubai on Saturday. The Pakistan Business Seminar was organised by Javed Malik, Dubai based Special Envoy to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Overseas Investment.
The finance minister was in Dubai for the quarterly review meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)team. The meeting was held in Dubai due to the law and order situation in Pakistan.
Dar said the security challenges are there but the government has devised plans to tackle this issue.
“We are talking to Taliban giving peace another chance through negotiations and we hope to succeed,” he said.
Dar openly discussed issues facing the Pakistan economy and challenges facing investors.
“We inherited three bad ‘Es’ — bad economy, energy and extremism — from the previous government but we have managed to control the situation within seven months since we took over last year,” he said. However,he acknowledged that Pakistan is not yet completely “out of the woods”.
He invited the UAE nationals and Pakistani expatriates to come to Pakistan as there are plenty of opportunities for them with good returns. He put the investment in energy sector on top of the list saying that investors will get sovereign guarantees over investment in energy fields. The government has given incentives in oil and gas exploration to overcome energy shortages.
Highlighting the best practice the government has adopted, Dar said that transparency, good governance and zero tolerance for corruption are hallmarks to ensure smooth economic growth.
Dar said the current government believes in market economy and facilitation of businesses to enhance production, address unemployment and provide long-term economic relief to the common man.
In this connection, he said the government had taken a number of unpopular decisions to put the financial discipline.
Pakistan’s industry had shown a positive growth of 5.2 per cent. Revenue’s collection in January 2014 was Rs167 billion (Dh5.96 billion) indicating an increase of 26 per cent over the collection of January last year, a positive signal to achieving full year target, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Malek said he formed Pakistan International Investment and Business Council to promote bilateral, trade, facilitate investor and to improve Pakistan economy. The Council will also give ideas and, guide investors.
Malek said that the Council would be an Economic and Trade diplomacy initiative that connects expatriate Pakistani businessmen globally, and also reach out to Friends of Pakistan that have an interest in business, trade and investment in the country.
“We would be organising various trade and economic diplomacy initiatives globally to project the positive aspects of Pakistan, and highlight the country’s trade and investment potential at an international level,” he said.
