KARACHI: With an investment of $14 million, investors of Pakistan and Hungary have formed a joint venture company namely AquaHatch International (Pvt) Ltd, to develop a freshwater ecosystem in Pakistan. The formation of this company will further strengthen the trade ties between Pakistan and Hungary.
In the initial phase, AquaHatch aims at setting up a pilot of producing 10 million seeds initially and supplying them to the local fish farms. The project has already procured 100 acres of land where the operations will be scaled-up to around 50 million seeds in the future.
To commence this relationship, a ceremony was held on Wednesday and the Minister of State and Chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) Muhammad Azfar Ahsan was the Chief Guest of the ceremony. The business partners of AquaHatch include VitaFortAgro Asia, Jaffer Agro Services (Pvt.) Ltd., Garibsons (Pvt) Ltd, and Deep Blue Seafoods (Pvt) Ltd.
On the occasion, representatives from the partner, including Faisal Iftikhar CEO AquaHatch International (Pvt) Ltd, Ormos Andras from Vita Fort, Hungary, Istvan Grafjodi Hungarian Commercial Counsellor in Pakistan, Fuad Garib CEO Garibsons (Pvt) Ltd, Nadir N Jaffer CEO Jaffer Agro Services (Pvt) Ltd, Nasser N Jaffer Chairman Jaffer Group and other top management of Jaffer Group & Garibsons were also present.
BoI Chairman Azfar Ahsan was confident that the joint venture between the two countries will flourish soon and also provide employment opportunities in Pakistan.
He said that Pakistan offers a strong and large consumer market to the foreign investors with an ever-expanding middle class. The country’s strategic location at the crossroads of South Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia and proximity to the Gulf countries, makes Pakistan a promising regional hub and an important market for trade and investment, he added.
He informed that Pakistan had received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth $42.5 million in 2020 and $21.2 million in 2021 from Hungary.
“We are in the process of signing a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hungary and the first round of negotiations has been held in Islamabad. Bestowed with immense resources, Pakistan is a land of opportunity for investors and business concerns, both investment and trade,” he said.
The Minister of State said that despite various challenges, especially in the situation arising out of Covid-19, the government of Pakistan is making all-out efforts to put the economy on track with long-term and sustainable economic progress. The improvement in various economic indicators is proof of these efforts, he added.
The minister of state also highlighted the important role of the BOI which acts as an interface between international and local investors, public and private sectors. “We are also in the process of signing a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hungary and the first round of negotiations has been held in Islamabad,” he added.
On the occasion, Muhammad Faisal Iftikhar Ali, CEO AquaHatch said that currently, existing hatcheries are unable to fulfill the nation’s requirement. So far, only two million seeds could be produced locally, as for the rest, there is a heavy reliance on imported seeds which have many issues. To cater to the demands of fish seeds, AquaHatch International was set up.
“There is immense potential in Pakistan’s fishing industry. For example, this industry is really big in our regional neighbors like Vietnam. Right now, we are importing a lot of fish and other seafood products, but if our industry grows, we will not need to do this,” he added. He said that fish offers a good alternative to poultry products as well and there is great potential in this field.
The AquaHatch company’s HQ is located along the prime potential hatchery belt in Sultanabad in district Thatta, Sindh. The location has a rich ecological significance as there are several large and small natural water bodies including, Manchar Lake, Kinjhar Lake, Kalri Lake, Haleji Lake, Chotiari Reservoir, Nara Canal, etc. As the River Indus and its tributaries are the sources of livelihood for communities living around these water bodies, they are entirely dependent on fisheries resources.
The whole idea of setting up a hatchery in the area is to harness the local skill potential and provide alternative livelihoods, which will also divert the pressure on the local aquatic bodies and will enable the aquatic species and fisheries to sustain their population and prevent overharvesting and overfishing.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022