ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, has said that an estimated foreign investment of US$60 to $70 billion was expected in the next three to five years under the government’s new initiative of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).
The Prime Minister said this while talking to senior journalists and news anchors here on Friday, adding that the government of Pakistan had also received promises and pledges of another similar amount of investment.
Kakar further said the country has the potential to attract mega investment, including the $700 billion project of Reko Dik gold and copper reserves, adding that the implementation of such projects would make the way towards economic prosperity in the country.
“We have taken the initiative of SIFC to realize and materialize this potential, and we are going towards the right direction so far as the financial models and the scientific methods are concerned,” the prime minister remarked.
Investment Opportunities in Pakistan
The prime minister underscored that the country had huge land that could be utilized for agricultural purposes that could fulfil the food requirements of half of the Asian population, adding that Pakistan had enough water to irrigate the barren land across the country.
He also hinted towards the IT, tourism, and defence sectors and said that these sectors have also an attractive potential and could be utilized for the socio-economic development of the country.
PM Kakar recalled that although the prime responsibility and concern of the caretaker government was to tackle elections across the country, however, it would also try to improve the taxation mechanism and address other economic issues.
Regarding the recent hike in the electricity tariff, Kakar said that the government was considering various options to provide relief to the masses.
Replying to another query, he said economic migration was a usual phenomenon everywhere and not a brain drain as people leave the country for a better future, and Pakistanis going abroad would help the country to contribute to its economy in the future.
The Prime Minister advised the mainstream media to educate the masses with optimistic reporting, adding that there was no chance of a sudden collapse of the country’s social structure as all professionals, doctors, nurses, and other segments of the society were functioning at an absolutely normal pace.
PM Accuses Previous Govts for Expensive Electricity
He said that issues in the power sector were not new as these were there since 1990s, whereas the then governments signed agreements with independent power producers to overcome loadshedding, which had a higher cost.
Meanwhile, the power generation and transmission system of electricity was affected with the passage of time with no timely solution by the previous government, which led to line losses, power theft, high circular debt, use of expensive imported fuel, and capacity payments to electricity companies.
The prime Minister informed that the government would fulfil its agreements with the international financial institutions.
