Foreign investors turning to Pakistan: Gillani.

LAHORE -- Federal Secretary, Board of Investment (BoI) Asad Rehman Gillani has said that a high-powered 250-member strong Japanese business delegation is due in Pakistan last week of September.

He was speaking at a meeting at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, here on Friday. LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir, Senior Vice President Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and Vice President Haris Ateeq also spoke on the occasion.

The federal secretary said that the Japanese delegation is coming to identify available opportunities in various sectors. He said a delegation of Pakistan will visit Saudi Arabia on October 29-30 as the Saudi businessmen are keen to step into joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts.

He said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed to remove all hurdles coming in the way of foreign direct investment.

He said that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have a ten-year tax holiday and machinery can be imported tax-free for the industries in SEZs. He said that the procedure and rules and regulations for setting-up industries in SEZs under FDI are being made easier. He said that the business community will be taken on board once the draft in this regard is prepared. He hoped that the work in this regard will be completed by December.

Secretary Asad Rehman informed the house that SECP (Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan) is providing nine licenses online to the corporate companies while the registration of companies is also being done online.

LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir was of the view that in order to deal with the current economic challenges, the level of net foreign direct investment in Pakistan needs to be enhanced to at least 10 billion dollars.

He said that in the first month of the current financial year i.e. July 2022, the net FDI was just 59 million dollars as compared to 104 million dollars in the same month last year.

He said that according to the State Bank data, the recent FDI inflows are concentrated in the sectors like power, financial services, oil and gas and communications. There is a great potential to attract FDI inflows in the sectors like construction, housing, tourism, food processing, logistics, value added textiles, automobiles and renewable energy etc.

He said, "In addition to the FDI inflows, we also need to talk about local investment." The total investment as a percentage of GDP has been stagnant at around 15% for the last three years.

The LCCI president said, 'We have seen FDI...