LAHORE – Minister of State and Federal Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Mohammad Azfar Ahsan said on Tuesday that major focus of the department is to facilitate the new projects of existing local and foreign investors, hoping that significant growth in various sectors will be witnessed in coming days.
Talking to Pakistan Observer at the inaugural session of Punjab Chapter of CEPC Industrial Cooperation and B2B (business to business) Investment Conference in Lahore, he said that working is underway for the development of priority sectors, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan was himself looking after the matters in this regard.
Ahsan said that major positive developments are undergoing in various sectors including textile, petrochemical, IT and Telecom and tourism.
BoI is playing its role to facilitate investors in their new and existing projects, he said, adding: “We are also working on Global and local outreach of Pakistan”.
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Addressing the event, BoI chief said that Pakistan was following a liberal investment regime and facilitation was its foremost cornerstone for encouraging investors and creating conducive environment for both local and foreign investors.
He also invited investors, business and industrialist community from not only China but also from other countries to come and invest in various sectors in Pakistan.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on CPEC Khalid Mansoor gave a detailed presentation on the CPEC projects, “Way forward on the process of industrialization in Pakistan”.
Provincial Minister for Industries and Commerce Mian Aslam Iqbal delivered the keynote address on behalf of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, Federal Secretary BpI Fareena Mazhar spoke on “Investment regime in Pakistan”, while Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong and Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moin-ul-Haque shared their views through video-link.
Azfar Ahsan said that the BoI is carrying out various activities of high marginal impact to attract and sustain productive investments in a set of sectors which collectively create massive employment and labour intensive export-oriented industrialisation.
He also thanked the Chinese participants and said that they had always supported the BoI in its initiative of bilateral business and investment cooperation. CPEC industrial cooperation is a long-term endeavour which is picking pace lately, being the lead agency in the CPEC investment since 2016, the BoI has made notable progress.
Azfar Ahsan said that now the second phase of CPEC had commenced, the BoI would continue to take lead for investment promotion, facilitation and industrial cooperation. The first phase of CPEC required leading role of the government, while second phase calls for enhanced role of industrialists, the private sector and businesses community.
The government role would be of facilitator now and it is devising effective polices, laws and efficient infrastructure to facilitate B2B and people-to-people linkages. He said that CPEC industrial cooperation is all inclusive in its scope, and it is open to the third party participation, according to APP.
The minister of state and BoI chairman said that the government had already launched conducive policies such as electric vehicles policy, mobile manufacturing policy, construction sector policies, Sole Enterprise Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Regulations 2020, and SEZs Enterprises Admin and Sale Lease and Sub-Lease of Plot Regulation 2021 to increase investment in Pakistan.
The BoI was mandated to promote, encourage and facilitate local and foreign investment, and in this regard several initiatives were being undertaken by the government of Pakistan such as ease of doing business, and regulatory, structural and tax reforms.
Keeping up with demands of industrial cooperation, he mentioned, the BoI, in collaboration with China Council for International Investment Promotion, had recently developed the Pakistan-China B2B Investment Portal to populate the data of Pakistani companies which were worthy for JVs (Joint Ventures) with interested Chinese companies.
