LAHORE: Coordinator for Minister of State and Federal Tax Ombudsman Meher Kashif Younis said on Sunday that Pakistan’s economic landscape had undergone a remarkable transformation, largely because of the establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), which had successfully attracted foreign direct investment into the country.
Speaking as the keynote speaker at a seminar on “The Impact of SIFC on Pakistan Economy,” organized under the aegis of Gold Ring Economic Forum, a strategic think tank, Meher Kashif said that the initiative holds immense importance, especially in the realm of FDI as the SIFC effectively engages with different nations and is fully committed to ensuring investment flows into the country.
He said its manifesto included foreign investment with a long-term goal of touching 60 billion dollars in five years and eventually achieving the target of 100 billion dollars.
Meher Kashif said that Pakistan needed consistency in fiscal, economic, and trade policies and close collaboration with local and foreign stakeholders to attract investments.
He said it was a good omen that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait had signed multi-billion dollar deals for foreign direct investment (FDI), depicting a significant response to the SIFC, which was likely to increase substantially from January 2024.
He said that these deals encompass investment cooperation across diverse sectors such as port operations, wastewater treatment, energy, food security, logistics, mining, and aviation sectors.
Meher said the International Finance Corporation, in collaboration with the Board of Investment, had also introduced an ambitious investment plan to inject more than 1.5 billion dollars into Pakistan’s economy through both short- and long-term planning.
Pakistan-China Economic Partnership
He added that the economic partnership between Pakistan and China had also been reinforced by signing twenty deals and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation.
Meher hinted that countries like Germany, France, and South Korea had expressed their interest in inking deals related to administrative control of power distribution companies of Pakistan.
