The president of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain, has demanded that foreign investors should not be given preference over local investors, saying favouring foreigners is not in the national interest. He said that the practice of sovereign guarantees should be stopped or approved only through the National Assembly because non-payment defames country.
He said too much concessions offered to the foreign investors is harmful as it damages the economy and hit common man. The government's obsession about foreign investment continues to discourage local investors, who start giving preference to other countries for investment over investment in Pakistan, he said. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the continued flight of capital reduces the chances of balanced foreign investment while sovereign guarantees and guaranteed rates of high return add to the problems of the consumers.
Many foreign investors are getting such handsome returns in Pakistan that they can never get anywhere else in the world, and such investments cannot be called real foreign investment. Due to the higher rates of return, electricity has become very expensive in the country, resulting in higher cost of doing business, reduced competitiveness and falling exports.
Many foreigners get full return on their investment in the first or second year, and this has motivated many local investors and overseas Pakistanis to approach the government in the guise of foreign investors. Some foreign investors who get relaxations for five to ten years to leave the country for another destination as soon as the time of end of relaxations approaches.
This has disappointed local investors to an extent that investment in manufacturing has almost dried up except for a few investors eying cement sector. Relaxations should be offered to the investors setting up export industry while those who set up businesses for local consumption should not be given any incentives.
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