PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif has effectively utilized his Saudi visit to project Pakistan as an attractive investment destination and forge bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia, which has emerged as an active partner of the country in its search for economic development and prosperity. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Tuesday, he pointed out that Pakistan was on a transformative path and extended an invitation to global investors to invest in various sectors of the country’s economy. And during a bilateral meeting with Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Prime Minister apprised him of Pakistan’s economic, institutional and policy reforms agenda, adding that the kingdom had a central role in Islamabad’s future economic plans.
There is no doubt that as a result of sound policies adopted by the coalition, interim and the incumbent governments, Pakistan is now firmly on the path of recovery as substantiated by improved economic indicators. The foreign exchange reserves are steadily increasing, exchange rate is somewhat stable, exports are picking up, domestic resource mobilization has become a catchword for policy and decision makers, the process of institutional reforms is taking place at a comprehensive scale and different countries and global companies are now actively engaged in talks with officials concerned for investment in various sectors of the economy. It is because of the hard work of the last over two years that the credit ranking of the country has improved and the successful conclusion of the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent positive signals to bilateral and multilateral donors and investors. Saudi Arabia has surely assumed significance for Pakistan’s economic development as it is one of the major sources of remittances an important trading partner and its leadership has a commitment to provide necessary assistance to overcome economic challenges and accelerate the pace of progress and development. Apart from the monetary assistance that the Kingdom is extending to Pakistan, Riyadh is also willing to make substantial investment in different sectors including refinery and mining. There is also keen interest and substantive proposals from some other countries and international companies for investment in agriculture, auto industry, IT and telecom, power and tourism. One must appreciate the Government and its relevant ministries and departments for devising policies aimed at boosting confidence of the prospective investors and efforts of the leadership especially Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Muhammad Ismail for marketing Pakistan as a lucrative market. However, it is also a reality that a lot more needs to be done to bring about a visible change as far as investment and industrialization are concerned. It is mainly because of the longstanding political instability and infighting that the country has not been able to ensure continuation of policies, which is a pre-requisite for attracting foreign and local investment. According to reports, Saudi investors, during their interaction with Pakistan authorities, have expressed serious concern over abrupt change of policies and trust deficit. No doubt, due to the active role played by the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), progress has been made on policy and legal fronts to allay apprehensions of Saudi investors but the overall political scenario is not encouraging. Similarly, China has already invested billions of dollars in Pakistan and is more than willing to invest more but the security environment needs to be improved to translate these possibilities into practical projects and programmes. Rising cost of doing business is also a matter of concern for prospective entrepreneurs, therefore, apart from bringing the interest rate further down, the authorities concerned should take measures to reduce rates of electricity and gas and also rationalize various taxes.
