FOR the first time in many years, there are clear signs of both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia working closely to materialize the latter’s pledges of substantial investment in Pakistan on a priority basis. Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman lost no time in dispatching a high level delegation to Pakistan as a follow up of the commitments he made during his meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The delegation led by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud held intensive discussions with Pakistani leadership including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief General Asim Munir on how to proceed further and got exhaustive briefings on prospects of investment in the country.
The visit of the delegation has been a tremendous success as Pakistan side reportedly offered 25 doable projects involving investment worth about 32 billion dollars in different sectors of the country’s economy and the Saudi Foreign Minister emphatically declared during joint news conference with his Pakistani counterpart that the visit would deliver “significant benefits” in the upcoming months by realizing the potential of untapped economic development. The positive outcome of the visit is a glowing tribute to the meticulous preparatory work done by the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and reiteration of the resolve of the Saudi leadership to contribute to the socio-economic uplift of the people of Pakistan. The remarks made by the Saudi FM also reflected this resolve as he said that the engagement so far laid the groundwork for “significant and important work to be done in the next few months in order to achieve all of the potential that exists”. The projects that are on the table have the potential not only to substantially accelerate the pace of growth and development in Pakistan but offer desired benefits to investors as these have the prospects to boost economic activities. We hope solid agreements will be signed during the proposed visit of the Saudi Crown Prince to Pakistan, may be next month.
