Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FPCCI) standing committee on Foreign Investment on Friday urged the Sindh Government to play role with a vision to attract foreign investment in the province. Addressing the committee's first meeting of this year held at Federation House, senior vice president FPCCI S. Khalid Tawab said that the country was presently lacking foreign investment despite having huge potential market for outsiders.
Without mentioning the schedule he said Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah was heading a delegation of businessmen to Germany. The visit will help bring better investment in the province. He also asked the traders/industrialists to submit their group profiles (if they want) to be part of this visit. He said that foreign investment in Sindh was quite less compared to Punjab, however, the CM's visit would be a good step.
Chairperson Sindh Board of Investment Naheed Memon on this occasion assured the businessmen to address their issues. Rejecting the traders' claim that Sindh government was not working effectively for bringing investment, she said: "We are doing our best and making plans in this regard. Sindh has got strong institutional and legal environment compared to any other province. Nearly a dozen of departments including public Private Partnership Unit, Sindh Board of Investment, Special Economic Zones, Sindh Mining Concessions Rules 2002, and Thar Coal and Energy Board etc, were working for creation and promotion of trade and investment opportunities in the province,"
Counting few success stories of the provincial government she said Hyderabad Mirpur Khas Dual Carriageway (HMDC) Project and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) Safety & Security have been completed under public private partnership (PPP). Elaborating she said HMDC Project has 60 km long road with eight bridges and 62 culverts. It was financed through a mixture of private party's equity 30 percent and GoS sub-debt 30 percent and commercial bank debt 40 percent.
About NICH Safety & Security she said it was the largest tertiary care and teaching hospital for children in Karachi. Its catchment area covers 20 million people in Karachi alone and it deals round the clock with 300,000 patients per annum. "We are also working on various areas including Livestock Tagging Project, Livestock Farms Project, Ghotki-Kandhkot Bridge project, and Mango Processing Facility project which are presently under Feasibility Studies," she added.
She said the province got immense resources of solar, wind and coal-based energy. Considering the fact, the provincial government has made market-oriented energy policy. "We have executed various projects to cater the growing needs of energy. Around 300MW power has already been added to national grid. Some 700 villages have been provided electricity during the last five to six years," she added.
She further said that Khairpur Special Economic Zone, Bin Qasim Industrial Park and the Korangi Creek Industrial Park had been declared Special Economic Zone (SEZs) under SEZ Act 2012. Naheed said that Marble City Project Karachi, Pakistan Textile City Karachi, Chinese Special Economic Zone in Thatta, Larkana at Rato Dero, Jacobabad, and Nawabshah are potential locations for SEZs in CPEC project in Sindh.
Arif Habib, Chairman Arif Habib Group, said the country needs swift and positive economic investment to provide employment to its citizens. He deplored that Pakistan was losing two percent of its GDP due to shortage of energy. Malik Khuda Bux chairman FPCCI standing committee on Foreign Investment, conducted the meeting. Muhammad Naeem, Shama Saeed, Sami Khan, and others also attended the event.