ISLAMABAD: French ambassador to Pakistan, Nicolas Galey on Thursday reached Power Division to hold a meeting with Power Minister Awais Leghari to find out solutions to issues faced by the French IPPs in Pakistan.
Issues of French IPPs in Pakistan were conveyed by the French President Macron in his meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh last month.
According to SAPM Syed Tariq Fatemi, Prime Minister, during his brief visit to Riyadh from 3 to 4 December, 2024, not only attended the One Water Summit co-hosted by the Saudi Crown Prince and the Presidents of France and Kazakhstan and Managing Director of World Bank, but also delivered a key note address in the One Water Summit in the session titled “Restore, Preserve and Adopt”.
Govt saved Rs1.1 trillion through talks with IPPs: Awais Leghari
In his bilateral meeting with French President Macron, the Prime Minister underscored the need for strengthening economic ties between the two countries. To this end, he suggested organizing a trade and investment forum to promote investment opportunities in Pakistan’s agriculture, dairy, livestock, IT, climate change and renewable energy sectors. The Prime Minister also invited the French President to visit Pakistan, along with a business delegation.
President Macron welcomed the proposal for enhancing trade and investment through organizing a trade and investment forum. He suggested that Pakistan should take necessary steps for the event, by identifying the sectors and the companies. He also offered to host the forum in France, as this would allow greater exposure to the Pakistani companies. Thereafter, the President assured the Prime Minister that he would undertake a visit to Pakistan with selected French companies. When President Macron referred to challenges being faced by French energy companies in Pakistan, the Prime Minister assured him that these challenges would be resolved.
In this regard, an inter-Ministerial Meeting (IMM) on bilateral trade and investment relations with France was held at Ministry of Commerce which chaired by Atif Aziz, Joint Secretary (FT-III).
In his opening remarks, Atif Aziz sensitized the participants regarding the meeting of Prime Minister with the President of France that focused on enhancing trade and investment relations between the two countries with a focus on key economic sectors including agriculture, dairy, livestock, IT, climate change, and renewable energy.
The Chair informed the participants that Secretary Commerce has emphasized taking all relevant stakeholders on board to ensure meaningful engagements with the French stakeholders. The representatives from Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) emphasized enhanced collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce in trade and investment promotion through Pakistan’s Trade Missions abroad and further identification of key economic sectors of Pakistan’s comparative advantage. Likewise, the representative also requested Ministry of Commerce to share details regarding any existing G2G forums/platforms for Trade & Investment promotion between Pakistan and France. The representatives of SIFC stressed fostering strategic engagements based on comprehensive need assessment with all bilateral and multilateral partners.
The representative from Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) mentioned that as compared to other European countries, France ranks 20th in terms of market for Pakistan’s IT sector services and products. He acknowledged that market access and Pakistan’s IT sector’s footprint in France can be enhanced. He mentioned that the data on French companies operating in the Software Technology Parks in Pakistan is not compiled and the PSEB will work on it to identify areas of interest. The Chair asked PSEB representative to give suggestions for enhancing IT exports to France and present proposals in this regard.
The representative from Engineering Development Board (EDB) stated that recently French footprint in Pakistan’s automobile sector has increased focused on local assembly of vehicles. He further mentioned that EDB is working on attracting foreign investment in the EV sector as per the relevant government policies.
The Chair asked for presenting any workable proposal that can be shared with the French authorities to attract investment/collaboration in this regard.
The representatives from the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) explained the existing policy landscape regarding power sector in Pakistan. He mentioned that the “Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan –(IGCEP)” is a comprehensive ten-year plan being developed by Power Division to project and modernize generation capacity in the next ten years in synchronization with Alternate Renewable Energy (ARE) and Pakistan’s National Electricity Policy (NEP). Moreover, he shared that currently there is only one project being offered by Power Division which is 600 MW Solar Power Project which has already been awarded to a Saudi Arabian company.
With regards to development of energy storage through batteries, he mentioned that the EDB is mandated in this regard. He further told the chair that currently there two ongoing renewable energy power projects in Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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