Federal Minister for Industries and Production Liaqat Ali Khan Jatoi said on Sunday the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) Road Shows in Britain, were to brief the potential investors of its different packages to persuade them make investment in Pakistan.
"We would like to tell people that we have given more packages and incentives for the investors coming to Pakistan and snore concessions for the business community," he told APP in an interview here.
He urged the overseas Pakistanis to make investment in the country of their origin, adding they could bring any amount of capital and make good profit ranging from 40 to 50 percent.
The first EPZA Road Show was held here on Wednesday while the second was in Glasgow on Thursday where he dwelt at length on the facilities being offered by the government and told them there was conducive environment for making investment.
Jatoi met the business community in Glasgow and explained to them various fields where they could invest in EPZA in major cities of the country.
The duty on raw material had been slashed while duty on import of the machinery for EPZA was at the minimal rate of five percent.
The investors could import duty-free the machinery if they were making investment in mineral sector.
The registration fee has also been eliminated. The industrial growth rate is 17.1 percent hence Pakistan was opened to investment and the leadership was determined to attract the investment as it would help the country address its many economic problems.
Answering a question on the concerns of some people on the law and order, he said, Pakistan was a country of I50 million people so the potential investors should not be mislead by an untoward incident here and there. They did not reflect the realities on the ground.
He said there are some problems but these were being addressed by the government by a well-thought out strategy. Referring to terrorism, he said, the government under the leadership of President General Pervez Musharraf was committed to eliminate it.
Earlier, speaking at first EPZA Road Show on Wednesday Jatoi had said a decision would be taken shortly under which the government would be fighting free the legal cases on behalf of the foreign investors as it was determined to bring more foreign investment.
There are seven notified EPZA while more are in the pipeline. The cost of land and rate of power have been slashed in these zones, he said.
Jatoi said the first phase of Gwadar port would be operational by 2005 hence it would enable the investors in the country to export their goods to the Gulf, Central Asian States and Afghanistan.
There are 211 acres of land available in EPZA in Karachi, Risalpur Sialkot, Gujranwala, Saindak, Duddar Export Processing Zone while an additional 300 acres were being developed for the purpose.
Referring to encouraging economic indicators of the country, he told them that its foreign exchange were over $12 billion, rupee was stable, inflation was under control while it has achieved 6.5 per growth. Tariff has been rationalised and the government's was taking more steps for facilitating the investors through an active involvement of the stake holders, he said.
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