President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Engr Daroo Khan Achakzai urged the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the concerned agencies of public sector responsible for promotion of investment to set targets and distribute the investment opportunities of Pakistan at national and international level and highlight that there is highly liberalized and business friendly investment policy in Pakistan which offers many incentives to investors and allowed repatriation of profit.
Expressing his serious concern over the declining of Foreign Direct Investment (net) in Pakistan which stood at US 1.3 billion dollars in the first ten months of FY19 compared to $2.8 billion last year same period, he noted that foreign public portfolio investment represents investment in equity market and debt securities stood negative $990 million in first ten months compared to last year same period $2.4 billion.
He urged Board of Investment and Government of Pakistan to take remedial measures for restoring the confidence of investors and projecting the soft image of Pakistan. At present, the law and order and energy situation in Pakistan has improved which indicates favourable environment for investment in Pakistan.
He stated that the declining trend generally indicates that foreign investors are reluctant to make investment in Pakistan due to economic uncertainty, infrastructure backwardness and other bureaucratic hurdles. Moreover, there is an increasing trend in the outflow of FDI and as per SBP statistics, in first 10 months, approximately $1.3 billion has outflow compared to last year same period $591 million.
Engr Daroo Khan Achakzai urged the government to create coordination among the federal and provincial investment Boards for making feasibilities and marketing the investment projects. Moreover, the Pakistani mission abroad should be involved in highlighting the joint ventures in investment opportunities and disseminate the information related to investment projects to the concerned investment agencies of their posted countries.