Federal Privatisation and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said that by the end of fiscal 2005-06, we were expecting to touch the figure of $3 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI).
He expressed these views while talking to press at Tiecon Pakistan 2005 Conference on 'Opportunities and challenges in entrepreneurship' here on Sunday, which was organised by the The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE).
He said during the first five months of the current fiscal year, the FDI has increased by 100 percent as compared to the first five months of the corresponding year last year. The minister said: "Over the years, the FDI in Pakistan was significantly improving; four years ago, it was only $322 million, $500 million some three years back, $798 million two years back, and $750 million one year back. During FY05, it stood at $1.56 billion and now we were expecting $3 billion by the end of the current fiscal year."
Earlier, while addressing the conference, he said Pakistan had never been attractive for investment, which showed that there was something was going wrong.
He pointed out that the government-to-government capital flow was there, but as far as the private sector flow was concerned, the situation was quite miserable. He blamed the bureaucracy that was creating moneymaking process cumbersome, however, this was partly a perception and partly true.
"It was the Musharraf government that made efforts to get the government out of business and open it up for the private sector," he added.
The minister averred that in the three-year tenure of the present government, the national exchequer pocketed Rs 290 billion from privatisation of national assets, saying in comparison, excluding these three years, in the last 13 years only Rs 96 billion worth of privatisation took place.
"Privatisation has paved the way for the private sector to take control of national companies, which has overall improved its performance," he added.
Dr Hafeez said: "Pakistan's regional position has also changed in the last five years. Three years ago we were engaged in an active conflict with Afghanistan, but now the situation has changed and the bilateral trade with Afghanistan has crossed $1 billion last year."
Similarly, the improvement in Indo-Pak relations in the few years has led to a number of initiatives, which would benefit both the countries, he added.
The minister criticised the bureaucracy for playing their due role in the development of the country and said that there were very few competent bureaucrats in the country, hence this was where the country failed to cope with the modern world pace of development.
He observed that the government kept itself busy on every front, right from the policy making to implementation and monitoring, which kept the private sector out. He was of the view that the government should only focus on making policies and acting as a regulator, but it should not indulge in business.
According to him, there was a time when it took 20 years to get a telephone connection, just because the interest of public owned entities was superior to the interest of the given sector. The Musharraf government for the first time opened up the doors for the private sector to manage the affairs of state-owned companies, which enabled the telecom sector to ensure telephone connection within 20 minutes and the prices were tumbling due to competition.
He was of the view that the political leadership had failed to provide a vision to the society, they have distanced the society from modern day developments.
He said that Pakistan has never an investment-friendly country in the days of Ayub, Bhutto, Zia and other leaders. However, this government had decided to get the government out of business, which attracted foreign and private sector investment in the country.
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