Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan is likely to cross 1 billion dollar mark by the end of the current fiscal year 2004-05. FDI has registered an increase of 17.2 percent in the first ten months (July-April 2004-05), rising from 760.4 million dollar to 891.5 million dollar, according to official figures.
Over 50 percent of FDI has come from the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, amounting to 483.4 million dollar in the current fiscal year. FDI from the United Arab Emirates accounted for 7.7 percent followed by Japan 4.3 percent and the Netherlands 3.6 percent.
The major sectors which attracted FDI include financial business (banking sector), oil, gas, telecom sector, chemicals, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals and power sector.
The improvement in the macro-economic environment and the upward revision of the country's credit ratings have helped attract large inflows of foreign investment. Over the last three years, the government has succeeded in removing various irritants, which affect the business and investment climate. Pakistan has been introducing reforms to attract the inflow of foreign investment since the early 1980s but FDI has crossed the 1 billion dollar mark only once in fiscal 1995-96.
During the last two years, FDI is striving to approach the 1 billion dollar mark and end of this financial year (2004-05) it is likely to cross that magic number.
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