Japan investors to visit Pakistan

LAHORE: A 250-member Japanese business delegation is set to visit Pakistan in last week of September to identify available opportunities in different sectors, Board of Investment (BOI) informed on Friday.

Federal secretary of BOI Asad Rehman Gillani said that while speaking at a meeting at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Gillani also shared that a delegation of Pakistan would visit Saudi Arabia on October 29-30, as Saudi businessmen were keen to step into joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts, he added.

The federal secretary said PM Shehbaz Sharif had directed to remove hurdles coming in way of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country. Gillani admitted that the investments were not according to their expectations, and political instability was affecting both foreign and domestic investments, he said.

Special economic zones (SEZs) have a ten-year tax holiday and machinery could be imported tax-free for the industries in SEZs, the secretary informed, adding that the business community would be taken on board once the draft in this regard was prepared. He hoped that the work in that regard would be completed by December.

LCCI president Mian Nauman Kabir said the business community had reservations over a constant dip in FDI. Issues such as law and order, macro-economic instability, political volatility, and energy shortages were hampering FDI inflows, he said.