Italy is contemplating Pakistan as a manufacturing base for pharmaceutical products to escalate the trading activities in African, Asian and Saarc regions. This was stated by Tariq Ikram, President of Italy Development Council (IDC), along with Saleem H Mandviwalla, chairman of Board of Investment (BOI), at a meeting held here on Friday.
He said that a number of Italian pharmaceutical companies have shown interest to invest in Pakistan, and added that a four-member delegation is scheduled to visit different cities of Italy comprising Milan, Bergamo, Rome, etc, from January 15 to 25 for this purpose.
He said that the visit is aimed at attracting Italian businessmen to invest in marble, mines and pharmaceutical sectors. Moreover, he said, Italy has already established marble factory-cum-training institute at Risalpur. Ikram said that this meeting was aimed at encouraging business community to participate in Italy Fair 2010, which is an opportunity for local businessmen to portray positive image of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Mandviwalla said the delegation would also discuss the issue related to credit issuance, which had earlier been cited by the President of Pakistan in his visit. He said that Pakistan has asked the Italian government to provide Euro 10 billion credit guarantee to their investors.
He further said that the Italian minister for economic would soon visit to Pakistan to finalise all issues related to investments. Earlier the BOI chief at a meeting with the representatives of Karachi Centre for Dispute Resolution (KCDR) said that the federal government and provincial governments are facilitating foreign investors, which would help to remove bureaucratic and inter-departmental hurdles.
Therefore, BOI has developed a liaison with KCDR to resolve disputes related to foreign investors, he said, and added that all kinds of issues would be addressed to provide speedy justice to them. He said that Pakistan offers unparalleled investment potentials including high "return on investment" in oil and gas sector, power generation, textiles, agriculture, mines and mineral and infrastructure development, dairy farming, mass transit, etc.
Mandviwalla said that UK investors are keen to invest in energy sector as the government is considering adopting other means including hydro, solar and green energy rather than utilising gas and fuel energy to meet power requirements.
Later, Justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui,. Chairman of KCDR, said that efforts were being made to provide quick relief to foreign investors as the issues are resolved within 2 to 3 weeks through mediation. He said that KCDR has recommended to the concerned authority to decide governmental cases through mediation, which would help in minimising the backlog of around 1.7 million cases pending in different courts.