KARACHI: The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), the chamber of leading 200 foreign investors in Pakistan belong to 35 countries, has released the consolidated financial contribution of its members for the year 2019 based on feedback from 150 members, 50 being subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies and 57 listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

The foreign investors have contributed significantly towards the GDP of the country and have maintained the OICCI position as the largest chamber of commerce in terms of economic contribution in the country. This comprehensive survey is being conducted annually since 2009.

Elaborating on the key features of the OICCI 2019 Annual Economic Contribution survey, OICCI president Haroon Rashid highlighted that "we are very proud that in the past twelve months, OICCI members contributed over Rs 1.2 trillion, or Rs 5 billion each working day, towards the tax revenue of Pakistan, which is approximately one third of the total tax collection in the country. During 2019 two OICCI members paid taxes in excess of Rs 100 billion each." The five sectors contributing over 80 percent of the tax revenue from OICCI members were Energy, Tobacco, FMCG & Food, Telecommunication and Banking.

"With an asset base of $120 billion, the OICCI members maintained their position as the leading foreign investors in Pakistan during 2019 with new investments of over $3 billion mainly in the energy, telecom and chemical sectors, OICCI secretary general M Abdul Aleem added.

Commenting on the significant contribution of foreign investors in the economy of Pakistan, OICCI president Haroon Rashid said "OICCI members believe in Pakistan and have always been leading economic contributors to the country, however we need to take note of emerging challenges that are affecting the ability of OICCI members to keep on attracting additional investment, for example, currency devaluation."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020