THE interim federal cabinet on Friday gave the nod to seven memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with Kuwait for an investment worth $10 billion that would be signed by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar during his upcoming visit to the Middle Eastern country. The MoUs will be inked for projects in various fields, including expansion of water reservoirs, mining facilities, protection and expansion of mangrove forests for coastal areas, investment in IT sector and food security. According to a statement of the PM Office, the expected MoUs between the two countries became possible due to the efforts made by the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).
This is an encouraging development in the backdrop of uncalled-for concern over the role and functions of the SIFC by some vested interests as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has started poking its nose in almost all policy areas. Like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the propaganda against the SIFC is surely part of the conspiracies to deprive Pakistan of the benefits of all major initiatives, programmes and projects. It was because of the foreign pressure and propaganda that the previous government of PTI adopted a policy of going slow on CPEC projects and as a result their cost increased despite the readiness of the Chinese side to provide necessary finances and help implement them in a time-bound manner. And now some local elements and the IMF are active to undermine prospects of significant foreign investment in Pakistan by some friendly countries. There is no doubt that the SIFC is focusing on investment from the Gulf countries but there is absolutely no bar on investment from other countries. While the country welcomes investment from all countries, both Pakistan and China have repeatedly made offers to other countries to join CPEC to share the benefits of progress and development. The SIFC is, in fact, a facilitator that clears potential hurdles and takes timely measures to clear road blocks in the way of smooth investment and project implementation. People of Pakistan have anxiously been waiting to hear about concrete progress from this platform and now the Prime Minister has shared the good news that in the next couple of weeks, Pakistan would be signing a number of MoUs of billions of dollars of investment with various countries from the platform of SIFC. Kakar said the SIFC was vigorously working on attracting local and foreign investment in various fields including the minerals sector, agriculture and IT. We hope that all ideas, plans and MoUs would translate into tangible projects in the shortest possible time as this would be the surest way to scuttle baseless propaganda against the SIFC.
