The United States has asked Islamabad to ensure rule of law, respect for contracts commitments, quick settlement of disputes through improved judicial system, enforcement on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and low level of corruption for attracting more investment in Pakistan.
These remarks were made in context of basic requirements of US economic agencies to deal with any other country, which stands true in case of Pakistan.
"Every country needs to take corrective measures to improve investment climate and the US authorities are constantly vigilant to witness progress on different factors in almost all the countries, including Pakistan," visiting Exim Bank Vice President April Foley said this during a joint press conference along with USTDA representative Barbara Brafford and Michael T. Lempres of OPIC here on Tuesday.
The representatives of the three state agencies of USA, Exim Bank, OPIC and USTDA offered Pakistan to obtain more investment in different sectors of economy that included railways, power, water, oil and gas, environment and telecommunication sectors.
"Pakistan can get US made locomotives and signalling system for railways as we know that Pakistan wants to upgrade its railway system," April Foley told reporters while answering a questionnaire in this regard.
According to preliminary estimates, the Exim Bank intended to provide $1 billion to Pakistan for various sectors in years to come.
Out of this PIA had so far got $300 million to get three aircraft.
To a question about role of Pakistani companies in reconstruction of war-devastated Iraq, April Foley said that they would be delighted to involve Pakistani companies in Iraq if a Pakistani company got a contract for certain projects.
"The Exim Bank can arrange financing for the company if it participated in bidding and got any contract in Iraq," she added. The OPIC representative said that they have no authority to sanction any project related to reconstruction efforts in Iraq as some other departments were involved in this exercise.
To another question about cost reduction efforts through improved rating by the Exim Bank, the bank's vice president said that the charges were varied related to different risks involved in these projects and on lower side, the bank charged 13 percent on its commercial lending. The risk guarantees were provided to political risk, terrorist risk and all other kinds of risks involved in this process. Due to risk rating system, climate for business has improved in Pakistan, she said.
She said that the Exim Bank had so far provided $300 million for getting three aircraft to PIA after initiation of project financing in Pakistan in the recent past. She also lauded the role played by Pakistan in war against terrorism and said that Islamabad's role was courageous and it had given sacrifices in this continued war. Pakistan has moved forward under the leadership of General Musharraf and improvement in economy is being achieved with hard and tough decisions of the last four years, she said.
She said that the Exim Bank had opened its operation for Pakistan's public sector on March 2004 and in addition OECD also improved its rating for Islamabad. "We have improved Pakistan's rating which helped in reducing financing cost by 30 percent for Pakistan," she claimed.
USTDA representative Barbara Brafford said that they were interested to co-operate with Pakistan mainly in three sectors, which included railways, environmental project and water sector. OPIC's representative Michael T. Lempres said Pakistan has shown that it is open for investment in all the sectors of economy.
Historically OPIC has provided over $968 million in financing and insurance to 100 projects ranging from construction and manufacturing to energy sector and financial services. OPIC's current financing and insurance investments provide over $122 million to four projects in the energy and financial sector reforms.
To a question about IPPs experience in Pakistan, the Exim Bank representative said that they had experienced a few hack ups during IPPs issue, but they wanted to be "more flexible" to continue their operations in Pakistan. "We are satisfied with the steps taken by Pakistan to honour contracts.
Comments
Comments are closed.