Azerbaijan govt, entrepreneurs keen to invest in KP's potential sectors: Ambassador tells CM      

PESHAWAR: The Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Azerbaijan to Pakistan Ali Alizada during a call on meeting with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak here Wednesday expressed the desire of Azerbaijan government and entrepreneurs to invest in KPK in the backdrop of Beijing Road Show under KP-China Investment Plan (KPCIP) and CPEC projects.

Alizada specially mentioned the areas of expertise of his country in tourism, energy, industry, construction, production, procurement, engineering master-planning and other sectors.

He told the chief minister that his country fully supported Pakistan on a number of global issues including the issue of Kashmir.

He said the government and people of Azerbaijan were of firm view that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was closer than Islamabad and rest of Pakistan. Similarly, both the people had a number of common values of religion, ethnicity, culture and history. Hence, he said Azerbaijanis preferred Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as more feasible to invest and develop mutual relations in trade, commerce and industry.

He specially lauded the reforms in various sectors carried out by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government under the leadership of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

e acknowledged that the restoration of complete peace and normalcy as well as announcement of attractive incentives by the provincial government had convinced not only the Azerbaijanis but investors from most of the Central Asian states to invest here on large scale.

Pervez Khattak said KP was open for investment. He said investors from around the globe could invest their capitals with guarantee and security of both the investors and investment over here. He said special police force of 4000 Jawans was being setup to ensure foolproof security arrangements for the purpose.

He welcomed the investment offers and the keen interest of Azerbaijan government and investors to bring mass scale investment in this province. He thanked the Azer government and investors for their confidence and showing satisfaction on steps of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for maintaining peace and creating congenial atmosphere of trade and industry in the province.

The chief minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was an investor friendly province, which offered full facilitation and protection to investors. He said currently the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was undergoing a transition. Security situation was improving rapidly while the governance had been improving by leaps and bounds due to number of reforms undertaken under the charter of good governance and reforms initiatives, he added.

Pervez Khattak appreciated that Azerbaijan had the largest natural resources, hydropower, gold and gas deposits in the world. He said our province was also blessed with huge untapped potential of Tourism, Hydel, Oil & Gas, Mines & Minerals sectors and the provincial government had a robust plan to capitalize upon these sectors through increased investment.

The government offers all possible support to encourage investors. He said technical assistance or investment from government and investors of Azerbaijan in this regard would be highly welcomed.

He said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was opening up new avenues for investment in the province. Recently a road show was concluded in China and various companies had shown their interest for investment in different sectors.

He said Gilgit-Shandoor Road could be one of the opportunities for Azerbaijan to connect with the CPEC route. A link via Wakhan strip to the Central Asian States including Azerbaijan would interlink the entire belt for trade and commerce. It would link all the Central Asian States to CPEC.

The chief minister said the government and people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were keen to develop investment partnership with Azerbaijan government in communication, tourism, oil & gas, mines & minerals, hydropower sectors while geo political location of this province in respect of CPEC provided competitive advantages in this regard.