INVESTMENT
Pakistan’s vastly improved security situation has been a key enabler of an economic turnaround that has received the acknowledgement and approbation of international financial institutions and leading credit rating agencies. The country’s economic outlook has become particularly favourable as a result of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a game-changing initiative of infrastructural, transportation and communication development. It will inject $46 billion into Pakistan’s economy over the next fifteen years, create some 700,000 direct jobs and add up to 2.5 percentage points to the country’s growth rate.
As Pakistan’s most developed, industrialized and populous province, Punjab occupies a position of immense importance in terms of its contribution to the national economy, it is ideally placed to reap the investment dividends emerging out of the CPEC. It has the additional attribute of being the country’s best governed province. Under its current leadership, Punjab has been set on a fast-track to development and is well on the way to fulfilling the vision enshrined in the Punjab Growth Strategy 2018 of a “secure, economically vibrant, industrialised and knowledge-based province, which is prosperous and where every citizen can expect to lead a fulfilling life.”
The province of Punjab is firmly on track to achieve the targets set out in the Punjab Growth Strategy to be achieved by 2018. The goals include attaining eight per cent growth and increasing annual private sector investment to $17.5 billion. It further aims to create one million quality jobs every year, and training two million skilled graduates. The aim is to also increase exports by 15 per cent to move towards a more growth oriented economy. The growth strategy wants to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals and targeted Sustainable Development Goals.
Punjab is also focused on reducing the security gap with the regional competitors by improving law and order and thereby making the province a secure destination for investment and trade. The province presents a tantalizing market for potential investors. It has a population in excess of 100 million, contributes 60 per cent of the national GDP and has 68,000 industrial units that provide 39.2 per cent of large-scale manufacturing and 70 per cent of small-scale manufacturing in the country. It is also Pakistan’s agricultural heartland and accounts for 68 per cent of annual grain production. The province is blessed with abundant agricultural and mineral raw materials for industrial use. It also has a considerable youth bulge, with 55 per cent of the population below 30 years of age and some 500,000 graduates produced annually. The productivity of the workforce is on the rise owing to the government’s
Skills Development Sector Plan, which has set itself the target of training two million workers by 2018. Key public welfare programmes have also been launched in the areas of education, health, e-governance, clean water provision, solid waste management, and vocational training. The Punjab government has undertaken major initiatives across a range of key sectors, thereby opening up lucrative opportunities for investment.
Proposals put together by the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) with the assistance of relevant government departments for the construction of three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were formally approved by the Chief Minister in April. These include Quaid-i-Azam Apparel Park, which will promote value-addition in textiles, Pakistan’s leading export commodity.
The Special Economic Zones will provide state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities to investors wishing to set up their industrial operations in Punjab
The SEZs will provide state-of-theart infrastructure and facilities to investors wishing to set up their industrial operations in Punjab. They will also carry special incentives such as zero per cent duty on the import of capital goods and a 10-year corporate income tax holiday.
In the realm of infrastructural expansion, the Orange Line Metro Rail project in Lahore, the first of its kind in Pakistan, will upon completion be a revolutionary development in urban mass transport in the country and will be a fitting complement to the hugely popular Metro Bus service currently in operation in Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad.
In terms of road infrastructure, the Khadam-e-Punjab Rural Roads Programme, the biggest project of road building and rehabilitation in Pakistan, promises to dramatically improve urban-rural connectivity. This will especially enhance farm-to-market access for small farmers, who form the mainstay of Punjab’s agrarian economy. Lahore Knowledge Park, being constructed over some 852 acres of prime real estate in the provincial capital, is another massive initiative aimed at making Punjab a regional nodal point of the global knowledge economy. The government is also working tirelessly to meet Punjab’s growing need for energy. The Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur, the largest of its kind in the world with a productive capacity of 1,000 megawatt, is a major step towards mitigating the impact of the ongoing energy crisis.
Hydroelectric, coal-fired and LNG power projects are also being initiated with private sector companies and alternative sources such as wind, biomass and waste are being explored. Attractive investment incentives are on offer in the energy sector including a customs duty of only fice per cent on the import of plant and equipment not manufactured locally and no customs duty at all in the case of renewable energy plants.
Alongside energy, communications, transport and industrial estates, other sectors where Punjab carries immense investment potential include agriculture, dairy and livestock; mining and minerals; housing and urban planning; wholesale and retail; and services. The current government’s well-earned reputation for ensuring good governance and effecting rapid infrastructural development has played a vital role in
building confidence amongst both existing and potential investors about the viability of Punjab as an appropriate location in which to put in their money.
The province’s investment policy as a whole is liberal and aims to make doing business in Punjab and with Punjab as seamless as possible by reducing costs, removing bureaucratic encumbrances and providing one-window facilitative services to investors. As the investment promotion agency of Punjab, PBIT stands fully committed to realizing the Punjab government’s vision of making the province a dream destination for foreign investment.
The writer is a PR professional
