Pakistan needs US investment in IT, energy, agriculture and mineral extraction: ambassador

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Masood Khan invited American entrepreneurs and corporate leaders to invest in IT, energy, agriculture, and mineral extraction when he met them in Washington on Monday, according to the Pakistan embassy’s press release.

The ambassador told the business leaders that the US International Trade Administration had identified several advantages for American investors in Pakistan, including the absence of shareholding restrictions, simple work permit regulations, no technology transfer requirements, and a large and sophisticated entrepreneurial community.

“A new entity -- the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) -- has been created to facilitate foreign inflows into these areas,” he told the gathering.

Pointing out that Pakistan was the world’s fourth largest freelance provider with over 20,000 ICT registered companies, the ambassador noted that the IT sector, especially tech startups, was fast becoming a growth industry in Pakistan.

He also projected that the power sector was another priority area as the country wanted to double its energy production from the current level of 45,000MW in a decade and make a fast transition to renewables.

The Pakistani envoy also invited the attention of US entrepreneurs to the treasure trove of minerals in Pakistan, including copper, gold, lead, zinc, iron ore, coal, lithium, rare earth, cobalt, aluminum, chromite and nickel.

“Pakistan is developing human capital and expertise for manufacturing semiconductor chips for application in various electronic and generative AI-supported devices,” the ambassador said, adding that “our lithium reserves, a key ingredient for battery production, would contribute to future sustainable energy solutions.”

“We are in the process of modernizing our agriculture. Our objective is to increase the yields of wheat, rice, cotton, lentils and soya beans through development of hybrid, climate resistant seeds,” he added.

Masood Khan briefed the participants in detail about various incentives that were being offered by the government in all sectors of investment. “We urge American sovereign wealth funds and investors in general to invest in the IT, energy, agriculture, and mining sectors,” the ambassador added.

He pointed out that Pakistan and the US were passing through a productive phase of their relations after successfully recalibrating their ties in past two year and had developed a road map for cooperation in both security and non-security realms.

The ambassador also said that the two countries had held several rounds of consultations to give a fresh impetus to their defence cooperation. “We hope that approvals for sustainment of American-origin defence platforms will come forth soon leading to the full restoration of foreign military financing and foreign military sales,” he said.