Germany has reopened the investment guarantees for Pakistan which were closed a few years back, says a message received here Tuesday from Berlin. A banking project of worth $20 million has been initiated to be followed by other projects. Negotiations on renewal of bilateral investment treaty between Germany and Pakistan are at final stages and new version is expected to be signed before the close of this year.
This was stated by Joachim Steffens, Head of International Investments and Finance Division, German Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology while addressing the participants of Pakistan Business Day Conference in Berlin. Steffens said that Germany had traditional strong relations with Pakistan in the field of textile and textile machinery and both countries also enjoy good business and trade relations in other sectors of the economy.
He disclosed that the first ever international conference on investment treaties will be held on 2-3 December this year in Frankfurt. Pakistan, with whom Germany signed the first bilateral investment treaty in 1959 after the second world war, has been selected as partner country at this conference. Shahid Kamal, Ambassador of Pakistan to Germany said that the Pakistani government is fully committed to confront the security and economic challenges with full might and it is important for the people of Pakistan that the economic efforts are not marginalised.
He said that despite many odds, Pakistan is at the top amongst its south Asian competitors in the "Ease of Doing Business" ranking of the World Bank report. Pakistan provides ample opportunities to foreign investors in various economic sectors with Investment Return Rate (IRR) ranging between 20 to over 30 percent Kamal added.
He also mentioned a number of reforms introduced by the government of Pakistan in taxation and business registration as well as deregulation of the economy. He said that Pakistan was keen to see more German investment in all sectors of Pakistan economy as Germany is the fourth largest trading partner of Pakistan and both the countries need to further strengthening economic relations.
He informed the participants that Pakistan is actively pursuing a free trade agreement with EU and expressed hope that negotiations for FTA between Pakistan and EU will start soon.
Pakistan has a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China, and German companies may consider to position themselves in Pakistan to benefit from this agreement as China is one of the fast growing and largest economy of the world, he added.
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