FDI flow to improve: official

ISLAMABAD: The Board of Investment (BoI) Additional Secretary Shah Jahan Shah in a news briefing told media persons that there are power shortage issues, however, with the passage of time and improving security position, FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) inflow would improve further. He added that in our vision 2025, our target is to get accumulative FDI of $15 billion by 2025.

He further said, “We are working on ease of doing business and from April 20 (today), we are going online on work visa, and now from anywhere in the world a person can apply for Pakistani work visa online.” He further said that tracking system has been introduced in it and now applicant can also track the visa status. We have also given online access to security agencies that can online check the documents of a person and give clearance to the person for visa. It will substantially reduce visa processing time, he said.

Shah further said that since the government has sent a positive message to the investors that it will not bring any changes to the newly announces Auto policy, so new investors are now coming forward in this sector after getting confidence. He said that already three car assemblers that control the country’s entire market, their product’s efficiency, security features and emission are not of international level.

“We are also planning to hold two road shows in a few months in China that focusing on textiles and steel sectors. In textiles sector, we are focusing on relocation of textiles industry in Pakistan,” he said.

Regarding setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs), he said that already the government has announced seven zones which offer incentives to investors and resultantly reduce their cost of doing business. Another senior official of BOI further explained that under CPEC, seven SEZs, including three each in Punjab and Sindh and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been established/notified.

These SEZs include three in Sindh i.e.  Khairpur Special Economic Zone, Korangi Creek Industrial Park and Bin Qasim Industrial Park; in Punjab they are Quaid-e-Azam Apparel Park, Sheikhupura, M-3 Industrial City Faisalabad and Value Added City Faisalabad, and Hattar Economic Zones, Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that Khairpur Special Economic Zone is 40 percent populated, Korangi Creek Industrial Park is 70pc while Bin Qasim Industrial Park is 40pc populated. However, development work on Hattar Economic Zones, in KP has not yet started.

He further said that in sixth joint cooperation committee (JCC) between China and Pakistan in December 2016, 41 sited were identified for SEZs, however, nine SEZs under CPEC were approved to be completed in three years. These nine proposed SEZs to be set up include one each in all four provinces, federally administered tribal areas (FATA), Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and one in Islamabad. Another one will be set up by federal government on the land of steel mills in Karachi.