German firms explore investment avenues

KARACHI: A 20-member German Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce (AHK) delegation is visiting Pakistan for a firsthand assessment of business and investment opportunities in the country, a statement said on Monday. The delegation met with foreign investors, members of Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), according to the statement.

The business delegation was accompanied by Holger Ziegeler, German Consul General in Karachi, and First Secretary for Economic Affairs at the German Embassy in Islamabad. OICCI CEO/Secretary General M Abdul Aleem gave a detailed presentation to the visiting businessmen, highlighting Pakistan’s liberal policies for foreign direct investment (FDI) that offered tremendous opportunities as well as incentives for new investment.

“The OICCI members have benefitted by taking a longer-term view, which is illustrated by the fact they have re-invested over $18 billion in Pakistan in the last 9 years, which is more than the total FDI inflow into the country during this period,” said Aleem. The OICCI official told the delegation that business confidence across Pakistan jumped 59 percent as shown by the results of Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey, carried out in May-July 2021, compared to the last survey in the same period in 2020.

“The OICCI members randomly included in the survey are more upbeat as their confidence level has gone up by 108 percent,” Aleem added.

Mr Oliver Oehms, CEO of the AHK, and other members of the delegation enquired about several matters, including potential sectors for investment, special concessions for major investment in Pakistan, incentives relating to Special Economic Zones, major development projects on tourism, impact of increasing inflation on businesses, tax incentives for putting up export based industries using imported raw materials and the most reliable government agency to facilitate the potential foreign investors. All of the queries were duly responded by the OICCI members at the meeting.