EVERY now and then there is good news emanating from China regarding investment in Pakistan. A few days back, a Chinese business delegation during its meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced to invest over five billion dollars in the next three to five years in Pakistan.
Now reportedly a Chinese company Timesaco is working on a comprehensive business plan to provide five important services in Pakistan initially investing twenty million dollars with future prospects of six hundred million dollars. The Company intends to provide a rapid services platform to citizens by launching five special services including a taxi service, heavy cargo delivery, orders delivery, moving automated machines and vehicle advertisement facilities. Initially these instant services will be launched in the six major cities which are Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar and later would be expanded to other urban centres. In the taxi service, Uber and Careem have proved to be successful models in Pakistan which not only provided opportunities to the youth to earn their livelihood but also provided decent commutation facilities to the commuters in major cities. Now the launch of a Chinese taxi service will promote the environment of competition and ultimately the beneficiary of this will be the commuters as they will be using the service offering the best rates. Similarly, there is huge scope for cargo and freight services in the country – the industry which plays an important role in the overall economy. In the global context, efficient logistics industry is a backbone of any economy. The arrival of Chinese in this particular service will attract many others to invest in this sector which will ultimately help the country to build a strong cargo industry which is important to capitalize on emerging opportunities as well as enhancing the efficiency of vulnerable industries. At the same time, it is important for Pakistan to stay closely engaged with Chinese government and companies to attract investment in other important sectors as this is the only way the country can overcome its big economic challenges and provide jobs to its young population.
