PM hopeful of SIFC bringing in over $60b investment to Pakistan in five years

Pakistan likely to reach ‘Reko Diq deal’ with Saudi Arabia soon: Kakar

SIFC hosted the final day of Pakistan Investment Roadshow in Dubai

ISLAMABAD_Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Tuesday expressed the hope that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) would help bring in over $60 billion investment to Pakistan in the next five years.
“It is indeed. It could be probably more than that,” the prime minister said in an interview with Arab News when asked whether the reports that the SIFC would bring in up to $60 billion in investments in Pakistan in the next five years were realistic.

He said the SIFC would serve as a “one-window operation” to address any concerns of foreign investors.
“Two or three areas have already been addressed, like repatriation of dollars, which is the demand of any FDI [foreign direct investment] entity, [that] it’s insured, it’s legally protected,” the prime minister said.
“Secondly, the bureaucratic red-tapism has also been addressed, the one-window opportunity on the platform of SIFC is primarily being designed for this purpose, that we need to cut off all these bureaucratic hurdles and rationalize the entire process of allowing and giving permission to any investment from outside within 15 days.”
He said a dispute resolution mechanism had been agreed under the SIFC platform.
“It’s quite encouraging and favourable, which is acceptable to all the outside parties … The dispute resolution mechanism has been addressed.”

To a question, he said the government hoped to conclude a deal by December for Saudi Arabia to buy stakes in Reko Diq, one of the world’s biggest gold and copper mining projects.
“We are quite excited at the Saudi offer, and we would be very much encouraging their participation, not just in this project but otherwise also,” Prime Minister Kakar said.
“It is the negotiation part, which is happening between the three parties, and let’s see what sort of outcome comes of that.”
In August, Pakistan hosted officials from Saudi Arabia in its inaugural mining conference in Islamabad where Barrick officials were also present. Barrick and Saudi Arabia’s state-owned mining company Ma’aden jointly operate a copper project in Jeddah.Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Tuesday, highlighting Pakistan’s achievement through the Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) Scheme to enhance women’s financial inclusion, said the country was ready to replicate its success story with the developing countries.

“Many developing countries are in touch with us directly through world organizations like the Islamic Development Bank, ADB, the AIIB, UNDP, etc. We stand ready to replicate this unique Pakistani success story with their support for the underprivileged and for the deprived women anywhere in the world,” he said addressing a virtual event on “Bridging the Financial Inclusion Gap in Pakistan”.

The event was organised by the World Economic Forum’s Edison Alliance and the Virtual Remittance Gateway.
The prime minister said that his prime objective as the head of the government was to give hope to the poor through the many-to-many platform.
He thanked the World Economic Forum’s Edison Alliance and its head Claude Dyer for recognising Pakistan’s amazing success story of the Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) Scheme on the World Bank’s Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment Project.

He said under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) collaborated with various branchless banking providers, banks and telecom operators to introduce Third Party Provider Services in Pakistan to facilitate the unbanked and underbanked population.

Meanwhile,

Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) hosted the final day of Pakistan Investment Roadshow in Dubai with prime focus on attracting foreign investments under G2G and G2B frameworks. The event brought together large number of global businessmen and investors representing diverse sectors.

The senior leadership of SIFC gave comprehensive brief on SIFC initiative, highlighting huge untapped potential and investment opportunities in key sectors of Agriculture/ Livestock, IT & Telecom, Mines & Minerals and Energy (Power, Oil & Gas).

Major policy level interventions, undertaken through SIFC platform to improve the investment ecosystem in the country, were also highlighted.

The leadership of SIFC proactively engaged the investors and pitched SIFC’s projects in the key sectors; SIFC welcomed the investments from public and private sectors and assured an all-out support to realise such ventures through a collaborative ‘Whole of the Government Approach’.

The investors’ community lauded the event as an important initiative which afforded opportunities to engage investors across the world. The investors exuded great confidence on SIFC initiative, being a novel approach towards regaining investors’ trust, and exhibited keen interest in the investment opportunities broached by the SIFC.

The successful conduct of Pakistan Investment Roadshow helped projecting SIFC initiatives in a great way at global pedestal. The mega event provided great opportunities to the global investors for networking with Pakistani public and private sector, and it is expected to open new vistas of investment collaboration