KARACHI (January 08 2010): The UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) on Thursday urged the British companies to invest in key opportunity sectors of Pakistan which include agriculture, health, pharmaceuticals, financial services, oil and gas, telecommunications, power, manufacturing, education and training and marine sector.

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) is providing £665 million of assistance to Pakistan from 2009 to 2013, the UK's second largest development programme world-wide by 2011. This was stated by UKTI Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cahn while speaking at a press briefing at British Deputy High Commission. The UKTI chief expressed his dissatisfaction over the present £1 billion annual bilateral trade between London and Islamabad.

According to the UKTI chief his side wanted a "step change" in the number of British companies and the level of investment they had made in Pakistan where, he said, the politico-regulatory and legal frameworks were 'very good' and investment-friendly. Suggesting a forward-looking and common-interests based partnership for Pakistan and UK, Andrew said there was strong need to overcome some misperceptions in Britain about the security system in Pakistan. "I am impressed to see the openness of Pakistan's economy and the eagerness of its government... we would respond positively and ensure we could do more investment," he said.

The UKTI chief said the level of British investors' confidence in Pakistan was not as high as it should be because of the perception problem which, he said, was "not accurate". "My organisation would correct this (mis)perception... through (exchange of) trade missions etc," he resolved adding that Pakistan, "an exciting and really interesting market place" for FDI, was one of those few countries who had maintained its growth even during the back-breaking global recession.

He said for their part Pakistan companies and trade organisations needed to look at more innovative ways to overcome the "perception barriers" to more trade and investment. Underlining the sectors like gas-based power generation, education, health care, pharmaceutical etc for British investors, Andrew assured that his country was ready to assist Islamabad in combating the shared threat of violent extremism and meeting the economic challenges it was presently facing.

"We remain strongly committed to our partnership with" the people of Pakistan that, he said, had transformed itself from a low skilled agrarian economy to a modern industrial nation. He said despite the series of challenges the country had faced, its annual GDP (gross domestic products) growth rate over this period had averaged 5.1 percent.

The UKTI chief also referred to the World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business" survey for 2008 in which the Bretton Woods institution had estimated that "Pakistan offers a regulatory regime more conducive to overseas investment than India or China".

He said Karachi was the closest port to northern India and the Central Asian states of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and large swaths of China. "Unlimited remittance of profits, dividends, service fees or capital is permitted along with 100 percent ownership of equity by foreign investors in the social, infrastructure, manufacturing and service sectors," he said.

Terming the British firms as first port of call for local companies looking for trade or investment partners, Andrew said the UKTI team in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad was committed to enhancing and deepening the mutual trade and investment relationship."We will do all we can to highlight the many opportunities that exist in Pakistan and to encourage British companies to avail themselves of those opportunities," he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010