Political instability affecting foreign, domestic investment: BOI secretary.

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

He was speaking at a meeting at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 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 Shahbaz Sharif has directed to remove all hurdles coming in the way of foreign direct investment. He admitted that the investment is not going according to the expectations and said that the political instability is affecting foreign and domestic investment.

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He said that Special Economic Zones 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. The federal secretary informed the house that SECP is providing 9 licenses online to the corporate companies while the registration of companies is also being done online. LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir said that the business community has the reservation over the constant dip in foreign direct investment in the country. According to the State Bank Statistics, the net foreign direct investment in financial year 2021-22 stood at merely 1.87 billion dollars as compared to 1.82 billion dollars in 2020-21. He 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.

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Mian Nauman Kabir 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. Going at this rate, it would be even difficult to maintain the level of FDI...