ISLAMABAD - Board of Investment Chairman Mohammad Zubair has said that the government has planned to set Foreign Direct Investment’s target at $10 billion and to increase investment to GDP ratio to 21 per cent till 2018 by encouraging domestic as well foreign investors in the country.
“We have set FDI target at $ 2.5 billion for the ongoing financial year 2013-2014 that will be enhanced to $10 billion by 2018. Similarly, the investment to GDP ratio will be increased to 21 percent till 2018 from existing 13.6 percent”, Mohammad Zubair, Chairman Board of Investment said while talking to The Nation on Saturday. He informed that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government has successfully brought two investments projects in Pakistan worth of around $350 million despite difficult environment especially law and order situation of the country.
Chairman BOI said that FDI is up by 86 percent during the first quarter (July-September) of the ongoing financial year 2013-2014 as against same period of the preceding year.
Meanwhile, in this statement issued here, Mohammad Zubair said that Yamaha Japan is going to invest 150 million dollars for a motorbike plant to be established in Karachi. The decision reflects confidence in the new government’s policy - both economic and efforts towards restoring law and order in Karachi. The Japenese chamber of commerce and govt is extremely pleased with our efforts, he said and added that Yamaha was trying to get this approval since 2009 but our government has completed it in 3 months what PPP govt. could not do in 4 years.
He further said that other agreement that is finalized during the incumbent government tenure is between US investment bank and KASB setting up first US private sector PE Fund JV with KASB for investment in Pakistan SME sector. This is a $ 200 million investment. We expect other Equity fund and investment to flow into Pakistan in the next few months, he added.
“There are several other initiatives especially in the energy sector which are in the final phase of negotiations and hopefully will soon conclude. We expect investments from Turkey, Russia, China, US, South Korea, Japan, UK and a host of other countries. We are also working to get investment in other sectors such as oil & gas, consumer goods, infrastructure, textile, IT and others”, chairman BOI said.
It does not however mean that the domestic investors are not being encouraged — we badly need domestic investment. Foreign investment will only follow domestic investment.
Mohammad Zubair said that there are 4 major initiatives that we have identified to revive Pakistan’s economy and put it on track on a sustainable basis. These are — investment, revenue generation (taxes), exports and remittances. You focus on these 4 and you have all your economic problems solved and also get rid of IMF and other bilateral aid. But these will take time, as they require structural changes. If we can only do what is within our control, we can change this country around.