Pakistan lags far behind in attracting foreign investment

LAHORE: Although Federal Finance Minister, Asad Umar, has broken the much-awaited news that Pakistan would soon receive the biggest foreign investment of its history from Saudi Arabia, he should pay some heed to the July 2018 report of the State Bank, according to which, the net inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country only rest at $2.767 billion currently, compared to neighbouring India's $45 billion.

And if Premier Imran Khan is to accomplish his long-dreamt goal of reducing poverty in the country, as he had again hinted out during his address to the participants of the Pakistan Economic Forum in Islamabad on Thursday, he might not see the desired success greeting him if investment from abroad does not land in huge numbers on country's shores in near future. According to the January 2018 report of "Global Finance," an English-language American monthly financial magazine with a worldwide circulation of over 50,000, the potential attractiveness of Pakistan for investment is a lot lower than India, which has received the world's 10th largest inflow of Foreign Direct Investment in 2017 despite all its political upheavals, alarming poverty levels, mega corruption scams, human rights violations and rather poor socio-economic indicators.

The magazine had revealed earlier this year that the global flows of Foreign Direct Investment had fallen by 16 per cent in 2017 to an estimated $1.52 trillion. They had stood at $1.81 trillion in 2016. The World Bank had placed this figure at around $2 billion in 2016 though. The "Global Finance" magazine had further written: "Despite the decrease, the United States received the lion’s share of global FDI at $311 billion followed by China that saw record inflows at $144 billion." At a juncture when global multinationals are flush with cash and almost all nations are locked in a pitched battle to win some of that cash in the form of foreign direct investment, Pakistan is surely struggling on this front.

Here follow the top 10 countries of the world that received the most foreign direct investment inflows in 2017: United States ($311 billion), China ($ 144 billion), Hong Kong ($85 billion), Netherlands ($68 billion), Ireland ($66 billion), Australia ($ 60 billion), Brazil ($60 billion), Singapore ($58 billion), France ($50 billion) and India ($45 billion).