The Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis is holding a two-day 'Overseas Pakistanis Investment Conference' here from Monday. The main objective is provide a platform to overseas Pakistanis to interact with the private sector and policy makers in the country, besides being instrumental in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan, an official told APP here on Sunday.
Highlighting the features of the Conference, he said that the conference would also provide an ideal opportunity to bring together all relevant stakeholders from federal and provincial governments, local business people and potential overseas investors for identifying areas of investment opportunities and forming trade and joint venture partnership.
So far, he said, around 250 overseas Pakistani investors have confirmed their participation in the moot, while, more than 200 local businessmen have shown interest to participate in the conference. Due to the policies and efforts of the government, he said, the overseas Pakistanis in different part of the world including the UK, US, Europe and the Middle East and Far East regions are keen to invest in Pakistan.
He said that 64 Pakistani investors from US would attend the conference, 55 from United Kingdom, 9 from Canada and 3 from Italy. He said that the response from Middle East has been satisfactory as 23 and 19 overseas Pakistani investors are coming from Saudi Arabia and UAE. Remaining are from other countries.
The official said that Pakistani investors had shown interest in 30 areas, and the highest indication of their investment is of $500 million, $496 million and $372 million was recorded in power plants, construction and agri farming, respectively, while an investment of $906 million was offered in services, tourism, light engineering, information technology, pharmaceutical and export sectors.
Top bosses of the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, including Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan, would highlight the plans, efforts and achievements of the Ministry and its departments, the official added. A number of technical sessions will be also held during the moot in which Minister for Privatisation and Investment Zahid Hamid, Chairman National Vocational and Technical Education Commission Altaf Saleem and other senior officials would participate.
"The four provinces and interested parties have also been asked to announce incentives and bring projects to the conference, which could be of interest to expatriates", he said.