KUWAIT: Assuring all-out support to the foreign investors and protection of their investments and capital gains,
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday invited the Kuwaiti investors and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the business-friendly environment in Pakistan.
"Pakistan has steadfastly pursued liberalization and de-regulation of economy and the privatization process. There is no upper limit of foreign equity and no restriction on repatriation of capital, profits and dividends", he maintained.
The Prime Minister expressed these views in a luncheon meeting with the Kuwaiti businessmen and entrepreneurs here at the Kuwait Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on the second day of his two-day official visit to Kuwait.
He said that with an attractive package of tax incentives, investments in Pakistan were given comprehensive legal protection.
Referred to the signing of a bilateral Agreement on Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investment on Monday after his talks with the Prime Minister of Kuwait at Bayan Palace, Gilani said that after this agreement, any possible concerns that a prospective Kuwaiti investor might have nurtured about the safety of investment in Pakistan, have been put to rest.
The Prime Minister said that a number of areas, including energy sector, downstream oil industry, port development, mining and minerals, corporate agriculture, livestock and dairy development, construction, textiles, banking and financial sectors offer lucrative opportunities were open for investment in Pakistan.
He said owing to the economic reforms measures and the liberal investment regime, the World Bank's ranking for Pakistan as business
friendly country had significantly improved.
Gilani said that despite the peculiar environment due to complex regional situation, Pakistan had done remarkably well in the economic field, as its stock exchange was thriving. Also the foreign remittances and foreign currency reserves reaching record level and exports were expected to touch a new high figure in the current financial year.
He said Pakistan located at the crossroads of Central, South West and East Asia, its proximity to China further accentuated its geo-economic profile.
Additionally, given its own market size of 180 million people, availability of trained human and rich natural resources coupled with business-friendly policies, Pakistan offers tremendous trade and investment opportunities, he added.
The Prime Minister said, "Pakistan and Kuwait, having trade links from historic times, have entered into a bilateral trade agreement in the modern era and have signed an MoU on cooperation between the chambers of two countries to boost their trade ties".
Gilani, however, was of the view that there still remained an untapped potential to give a quantum jump in the volume of trade between Pakistan and Kuwait.
He said Pakistan-Kuwait trade volume in fiscal year 2009-10 stood at US $ 2.2 billion, with Pakistan's exports at merely US $ 87 million against US $ 2.1 billion of imports primarily of High Speed Diesel from Kuwait.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan was universally acknowledged for its Basmati rice, textiles and clothing, sports goods, surgical instruments, carpets, marble, tents and many other products, adding, increased buying of these products from Pakistan by the Kuwaiti importers could help address to some extent, the present imbalance in bilateral trade.
He said Pakistan was also planning to organize a "Made in Pakistan" exhibition in Kuwait by mid of 2011, to showcase its products to the potential buyers.
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