China’s engineering giant strikes agri cooperation deal with HBL

ISLAMABAD: China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) has struck an agreement with Habib Bank Ltd (HBL) for agricultural cooperation, inked towards the end of the CPEC Industrial Cooperation B2B Investment Conference in Lahore, a statement said on Tuesday.

Federal Board of Investment (BOI), in collaboration with the Punjab government organised a B2B Investment Conference where Minister of State & Chairman BOI, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan and Secretary BOI, Fareena Mazhar were the keynote speakers.

Other speakers included SAPM on CPEC Affairs, Khalid Mansoor, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Nong Rong, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque and Minister of Industries & Commerce Punjab, Mian Aslam Iqbal.

Chairman BOI highlighted that CPEC Industrial Cooperation was all-inclusive in its scope and open to third party participation and invited the business community not only from China but also from all over the world to invest in Pakistan’s economic sectors.

“Pakistan has a liberal investment regime and it has introduced various investor-friendly policies … including electric vehicle policy, mobile manufacturing, construction sector policies, sole enterprise Special Economic Zone, regulations 2020, SEZ Enterprise Admin and Sale/Lease/Sublease of Plot Regulations 2021,” Ahsan said.

The chairman also informed the participants about Pak-China B2B Investment Portal, developed by BOI in collaboration with the China Council for International Investment Promotion and both local and Chinese companies were being encouraged to register for creating the possibility of materialising potential JV opportunities.

“Pakistan accords top priority to the development of SEZs (Special Economic Zones) under CPEC.”

Chairman BOI further elaborated that currently, out of the nine CPEC SEZs, three were at advanced stage of development including Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Punjab, Rashakai SEZ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Dhabeji SEZ in Sindh and attractive fiscal incentives were being offered under SEZs, which included a tax free period of 10 years and custom duty exemption on import of capital goods to both the developer and enterprises housed in the SEZs.

Secretary BOI, Fareena Mazhar said there were ample opportunities for foreign investors to invest with 100 percent equity or joint ventures in various fields with repatriation of investment and profit allowed with legal protection provisioned under the Acts of Parliament to foreign investment.

“The government has a uniform treatment for local and foreign investors along with 100 percent repatriation of profits and dividends and there is no requirement of minimum investment for businesses startups,” the secretary added.

While apprising the participants on Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative, Fareena said the platform had been established with a mechanism to transform the regulatory landscape across multifaceted tiers of government in Pakistan.

She underscored that several international corporations and businesses had a long history of association with Pakistan and were earning substantial return on their investments.

“Therefore, businesses communities are invited to reap optimum benefits from the lucrative and liberal investment regime of the government and explore investment opportunities available in different sectors of national economy,” Fareena said.

Special Assistant to PM on CPEC, Khalid Mansoor spoke about the way forward on the process of industrialisation in Pakistan under CPEC.