US Chamber of Commerce (USCC) South Asia, Middle East and Africa Department Vice President Dr Herbert J Davis said that Pakistan was an emerging market rich with exciting opportunities for US direct investment.
Talking from Washington over telephone with the Pak US Business Council Chairman and FPCCI former president Iftikhar Malik he said Pakistan with its investment friendly climate was now open to the American business community, adding that there were significant opportunities for the US and other foreign suppliers to invest in Pakistan.
However, Dr Davis observed it must be realised that those opportunities would require sustained and sound economic policies and called for strict implementation of Intellectual Property Rights.
With the lifting of economic sanctions in early 2002 and 2006 and renewed economic engagement between the two countries, he said it was to be hoped that Pakistan would achieve sustained growth in key sectors, including increase in per capita income and improvement in its micro-economic indicators.
He said Pakistan was ideally located geographically with immediate access to the Central Asian Republics, and has a competitively affordable and expanding work force of 36 million.
"Since 1999, Pakistan has achieved significant macro economic success as recognised by multilateral lending institutions, particularly, the World Bank and IMF", he said adding Pakistan's foreign investment policy is open and liberal, which is good news for American companies interested in doing business here.
He said the US-Pakistan Business Council helped the American corporate sector identify the opportunities in Pakistan's vast resource based industries such as oil, gas and petrochemicals, a fast growing infrastructure sector and other industries such as textiles, garments, software and automotive manufacture.
"Pakistan is a country rich in history, culture and natural resources," he observed and said he was confident that partnership between the United States and Pakistan which began over 50 years ago would reach a high point in the years to come.
Iftikhar Ali Malik said that multinational companies and investors were visiting and investing in Pakistan with several joint ventures and MoUs underway in various sectors, and observed that the balance of trade between US and Pakistan, which was tilted in favour of the US, should be 'more balanced'.
He said the private sector the world over had now emerged as the engine of economic growth of a country, adding that frequent exchange of business leaders from either side would help strengthen economic relations between the two trade partners.
Comments
Comments are closed.