‘Pakistan offering business-friendly policies for foreign investors’

ABU DHABI: Pakistan is a centre of attraction of foreign investers after the announcement of China-Pakistan Economy Corridor (CPEC) and the government of Pakistan is introducing business-friendly policies and environment for international investors.

This was stated by Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE Moazzam Ahmad Khan at a conference on Pakistan-Economy, Capital Market, Private Equity and CPEC held in Abu Dhabi.

Referring to CPEC, Moazzam Ahmad Khan said infrastructure expansion of over $55 billion is being implemented under the programme including investments of more than $35 billion in the energy sector. He said that the Pakistan government had been trying to boost the economy through the economic reforms. He informed the gathering that the government had succeeded to bring deficit down and increase foreign exchange reserves. He revealed that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves stand at $23 billion and expressed the hope that Pakistan would cross the 5 per cent GDP growth this year.

The ambassador said, “Over the past 3 years, the government has been able to bring down fiscal deficit from 8.6 per cent to 4.2 per cent; increase tax-to-GDP ratio from 9.8 per cent to 12.4 per cent and contain inflation to well below 3 per cent.”

With the reference of Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) report about Pakistan Stock Exchange’s performance, Moazzam Khan proudly said, “Pakistan Stock Exchange is among the best performing markets of Asia and indeed the world.” The UAE is Pakistan’s largest trade partner in the GCC, with total trade of $7 billion during 2015 and the ambassador hoped that the UAE business community would increase investments in Pakistan.