Denmark had a lot of potential for Pakistani entrepreneurs and they could initiate joint ventures with their Danish counterparts in agriculture, heavy machinery, dairy products, food-processing and construction industry.
Kurt Damsted, Director Dansk Erhvervs Formidling ApS, expressed these views while talking to LCCI President Mian Misbahur Rehman here on Wednesday. LCCI Senior Vice President Sohail Lashari, Executive Committee member Abdul Basit and Nadir Kamal Usman also attended the meeting.
Kurt Damsted said that his visit was aimed at exploring the potential of Pakistani market, which was fast emerging as regional economic leader.
Briefing the LCCI office-bearers about Danish economy, he said that the country had thoroughly formed modern market economy, featuring high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, a stable currency and high dependence on foreign trade. "Denmark was a net exporter of food and energy and enjoys a comfortable balance of payments surplus.
Our government objectives include streamlining the bureaucracy and further privatisation of state assets.
The government has been successful in meeting and even exceeding the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)," he added.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Mian Misbahur Rehman said that it was high time that the Danish investors should come forward and invest in dairy sector in Pakistan, as it was one of the five leading milk producing countries.
He said that only for lack of technical know-how and proper equipment a big quantity of milk was wasted. He urged the Danish businessman to bring bigger business delegations composed of sector-specific participants or product-specific group of entrepreneurs to yield tangible results.
According to him, Pakistan was on the road to political and economic stability; the outgoing fiscal year was an eventful year in which its real GDP grew by 8.4 percent as against 6.4 percent in the preceding year.
While the overall manufacturing registered a growth of 12.5 percent, large scale manufacturing and services sector posted respectable growth figures of 15.4 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively.
Pakistan's strategic location and rapidly growing economy offered immense potential for Foreign Direct Investment. Pakistan was a key market having a population of 153 million people and its manpower was highly capable, labour was comparatively cheap, investment operations based in Pakistan would not be restricted to the Pakistani market alone but would find their way to India and Central Asian States.
The establishment of Gawadar Port, Balochistan and Sundar Industrial Estate offered huge opportunities, he added.
He said that some of the portion of Sundar Industrial Estate in Lahore had been reserved exclusively for foreigners. "To be specific, Pakistan offers immense scope for investors in information technology, telecommunication, textiles (value addition), oil and gas, water and power, food and food processing, SMEs, engineering, tourism and services, etc," he added.
"These potentials need to be studied and monitored by the Danish investors. The interaction of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the two countries could be instrumental in raising the level of trade and investment between the two countries".
According to him, the Government of Pakistan had provided a number of incentives for foreign direct investment. The investment policy had been liberalised and made business friendly. All economic sectors had been opened to foreign direct investment. Free movement of foreign exchange had been allowed. Foreigners had free access to capital markets and there were no restrictions on repatriation of principal, dividends and profit, etc.
There was no limit on equity held by foreigners and no requirement for entering into a joint venture with a Pakistani counterpart. There was no restriction on borrowing if government guarantees were not sought. Overseas Pakistanis bringing $20 million for investment would be provided 10 acres of land free of cost for undertaking their ventures.
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