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Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday urged the investors of United Kingdom to invest in mega water reservoirs including Bhasha dam. Speaking at a luncheon reception hosted by Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) in honour of the visiting Pakistan-Britain Investment Forum (PBTIF), Ashraf said that Pakistan had potential of 25000 MW thermal power generation.
He said the government was working to build large dams and Bhasha dam was one of them that would be completed in eight years. PBTIF may be a great help in this regard, the minister said. He said that Pakistan had 195 million metric tons reserves in Thar and the government was also working to exploit these reserves for power generation.
He also invited British businessmen to invest in Pakistans renewable energy sector. He said that Pakistan was offering attractive incentives to investors willing to exploit this environment-friendly but largely unexplored sector especially for power generation.
Pakistans renewable energy sector, the minister said, would be reaching a milestone with the inauguration of the first wind farm in Jhimpir in the second week of April. The farm has been set up by a Turkish firm M/s Zorlu Enerji. Besides, he said, there was vast scope of investment in other areas of energy sector. UK and Pakistan, he said have strong trade ties that are growing.
"UK is Pakistans most important trading partner within the EU because of trade volume and large Pakistani Diaspora living there," he added. UK is Pakistans 4th largest destination for exports. Pakistan exported goods to the UK worth US $1,030 million last year, while imports from UK valued at $769 million.
Pakistan, the minister said, had signed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China and is establishing China-specific industrial zones. He urged British investors to benefit from these special zones by setting up industry there and exporting their products duty-free to China. Raja Pervez Ashraf suggested that PBTIF and its counterpart body in Pakistan - Pakistan Britain Business Advisory Group should chalk out a joint plan for further strengthening bilateral trade relations.
British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley, speaking on the occasion, said: "UK would like to further strengthen its trade relations with Pakistan through increased interaction of businessmen and the government officials of the two countries.
Exchange of trade related information and business delegation between the two countries would provide an opportunity to identify areas of mutual interest." Chief Executive Officer AEDB Arif Alauddin hoped that PBTIF, through innovative thinking, dynamic and proactive approach would help improve bilateral commercial relationship. He further expected that British investment would lead to strong growth of different renewable energy sources including bio energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, wind and solar energy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009

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