Foreign investors exploring opportunities in Pakistan

LONDON/ISLAMABAD: Various foreign investors are showing deep interest in Pakistan due to multidimensional potential of the country.

Australian business magnate Andrew Forrest who has a whopping net worth of $14.8 billion is the Group Chairman of Fortescue Metals Group on his second visit to Pakistan met Prime Minister Imran Khan, Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood and Chairman BOI Atiq Bokhari last week in Islamabad and expressed desire to invest tens of billions of dollars in Pakistan in Green Technology Projects.

Sahibzada Jahangir, Prime Minister’s Spokesperson on Trade and Investment in the UK & Europe and responsible for arranging last year’s visit of Andrew Forrest to Pakistan to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan, has called this biggest potential of possible investment in Pakistan by a single company.

In an exclusive interview in London with The News, Jahangir, who is also a founding member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said, “As per Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision for a prosperous Pakistan, I am presenting Pakistan as a suitable investment destination to the foreign investors. All the world financial institutions are displaying positive and favourable indications, declaring Pakistan safe and profitable destination for investment.”

Jahangir said, “By the grace of Allah, we have received a lot of interest in Pakistan and we hope that through his visionary leadership and global appeal, Prime Minister Imran Khan will change the future of Pakistan and at last the benefits and rewards will be felt by the poor masses in Pakistan.”

Jahangir explained that Fortescue was interested in developing Pakistan’s energy sector and was looking into options of solar, hydro and wind sources to provide electricity to Pakistan. They intend to invest to introduce new technologies with zero carbon emissions particularly green fertiliser and green steel production plants. Ultimately it would result in transfer of knowledge and technology to Pakistan thus creating jobs and economic opportunities in Pakistan.

It is reported that Andrew Forrest had said, “Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world ensuring gender balance in employment opportunities. He said, the investment would focus on

green industry starting from generation of hydroelectric power and development of industry in the associated land which would be owned and operated by the Group with the help of local partners.”

Previously, due to the efforts of Jahangir who had also taken a high powered delegation from Vitol, Dutch Oil company, to meet the Prime Minister Imran Khan, has now increased their stake to 40% in HASCOL Petroleum marketing company with over 700 petrol pumps in Pakistan.

Jahangir was also instrumental in bringing famous American company MoneyGram who joined hands with Bank Alfalah to cater to the 200 million strong Pakistani market. Condis, Spanish supermarket giant which is now successfully working in Lahore is another example of foreign investors interest in Pakistan.

Earlier this year Honourable Prime Minister Imran Khan had ordered to host an International Investment Summit in London but at last minute was postponed due to COVID-19. Jahangir said “Inshallah when COVID-19 subsides such a Investment conference will take place in london to promote Pakistan as an optimal investment destinations and Prime Minister Imran Khan may come to address the potential investors from UK & Europe all gathered under one roof.”

Sahibzada Jahangir said, “I am in serious discussions with some major departmental stores and I propose to bring them to Pakistan to set up their buying offices there in order to boast our exports of textiles & knitwear. Inshallah these visits will be implemented once the fear of Corona somewhat settles down.”

In the end, Jahangir said, “recession has now hit UK & Europe. Corona has changed the mind set of the public. Departmental stores are empty. Sales are down. As such, it is increasingly more important for our exporters to adopt an aggressive marketing strategy. Frequent road shows and personal contacts are extremely essential in the present situation to promote your products and compete internationally.”