Federal Minister for Investment and Privatisation Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Tuesday hinted at emergence of South Asian region for potential investment that has been focused by developed countries. The countries include Pakistan, China, India and Bangladesh among the targeted places for investment.
He was talking with newsmen at the inaugural ceremony of ITCN Asia International Exhibition and Conference here. He said, "The economic reform activities initiated by the governments of South Asian region have succeeded in drawing foreigners' attention towards them. The old image of ours (Pakistan) has been wiped out from the foreign investors' mind and now they focus to Pakistan as well when they intend to expand their businesses further as they feel that the region is secure."
Hafeez said that a number of investors of Middle East, Singapore and Malaysia have promised to invest in various projects of hotels, shopping malls, housing and entertainment sector in Pakistan.
"We are expecting substantial local and foreign investment in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this regard, the government has offered 20 percent concession in the corporate tax to the SME industry in the budget for 2005-06," he pointed out.
"New textile industries and spinning mills are being set up in Karachi and some cities of Punjab, for which the government is ensuring all possible infrastructure facilities for the investors," he said, adding that the event like ITCN Asia was one of major sources behind attracting foreign investors, and the exhibition had played a vital role in painting Pakistan as an investor-friendly country.
He said he was confident that positive environment would attract sizeable FDI every year. The government has also set target of $3.5 billion as foreign direct investment (FDI) for the financial year 2005-06.
"The FDI figure for 2004-05 touched $1.5 billion, and now we have set the target of $3.5 billion for the on-going fiscal year," he added.
He hoped that the target would be achieved easily, keeping in view the speedy foreign investment in different sectors of the country.
The FDI target of $3.5 billion being set for the current financial year, would also include $2.6 billion privatisation proceeds to be received from United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Etisalat company on account of the sell-off of 26 percent shares of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), he said.
Later, speaking at the inaugural session of the conference on 'Information Technology', Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Atta-ur-Rehman stressed the need to improve the standard of education in the country, particularly in Information Technology (IT).
He said that quality education was necessary for getting development in the country and no nation could become strong without quality education.
"We have 90 million young people, out of our total 15 million population," he said, adding that these young people should be focused to produce best human resource for the country.
The government has established seven IT Universities and degree-awarding institutes, and a Virtual University, and more such institution were being set up to provide quality education in this modern field to the young generation of the country, he said.
A large number of people visited the stalls set up by CallMate Telips Telecom Limited (CTTL), Pakistan's First Long Distance International (LDI) operator.
Speaking on the occasion, Azmat Hussain Corporate Marketing Head CTTL said, "The new service introduced by the company is very simple and hassle-free. Consumer can get this service activated on his/her existing telephone line and set. All the consumer needs to do after installation of the system is to dial 1380, our new four-digit code for corporate customers, and he would be shifted from his conventional line to our new cost-effective system."
He said, "We at CTTL's platform confidently offer our complete telecommunication solution, which is amazing in terms of quality (as we have user-friendly systems consisting of the industry's top-rated software and intelligence network) and Surprising in Terms of Permanent Economy for your Long Distance Communication demands."
Ajmal Ansari, CEO, CTTL said, "The event of ITCN Asia 2005 is the right platform for the company to introduce our new corporate product as this exhibition will play a pivotal role in creating awareness among the country's corporate sector about the cost-effective features of the high quality telecom products we are introducing for customer convenience."
Norwegian telecom giant Telenor also participated in the exhibition which provides as opportunity for visitors to learn more about its competitive products and try out value-added services offered by one of the leading mobile operators.
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