Punjab sets billion-dollar foreign investment target

The Punjab government has set a target of attracting one billion-dollar foreign investment to Punjab for the current financial year, for which the Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) is mobilising both domestic and foreign investors.
However, as per strategy the board would focus on domestic investors and also it would make efforts to resolve problems of those investors, who have already set up their projects in the province some time back, but could not become operational due to impediments.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Vice- Chairman of Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) Pir Saad Ahsanuddin stated this while talking to Business Recorder here on Monday. He said under the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, the board had started taking steps for providing an investment-friendly environment to prospective investors, such as ensuring provision of 100 percent accurate information on Punjab's economic affairs.
"In this connection, the board has planned to strengthen the 'Bureau of Statistics' at provincial level that could provide investors with basic information, like per capita income, per capita consumption of electricity, etc. "This is needed by investors to make investment plan and policy. Right now, we have just estimates at provincial level, but we would like to ensure that we could provide these figures with 100 percent accuracy.
"This Bureau of Statistics would be an independent entity and our target is to establish it by the first quarter of next year," he said. On having a separate investment board at provincial level in presence of a Federal entity, he said the provincial Board was not a competitor of the Federal Board, rather it would complement the efforts being made at the Centre.
He said the provincial Board would help securing tax rebates or other incentives for investors by approaching the Federal Investment Ministry where it was needed. He also said he had meetings with the Federal Board of Investment after every two weeks to discuss policies.
"The Commerce Secretary is also expected to visit the Punjab Board in next few days," he added. About interaction with the chambers of commerce and other organisations to ensure mobilising the domestic investors, Pir Saad Ahsaanuddin said that the Chief Minister himself focused on collaboration and co-operation with the chambers.
"Hence, we have set up a 'Punjab Chambers Co-ordination Committee' that meets once a month. The chambers and organisations send their problems in advance and the committee ensures to meet them with solutions to these problems," he added. On foreign investment, he said foreign investors were only motivated by high returns, and they could invest anywhere irrespective of prevailing situation.
He also said it was logical that where risks were higher, the returns would also be higher. "Punjab has huge potential to attract foreign investment, but since there is a great risk in investing in Punjab due to prevailing circumstances, thus we should be ready to give them high returns. The Board has a plan to hold international road show in foreign countries in near future.
"However, the Board would intend to mobilise the domestic investor first, as success of domestic investment would encourage foreign investors to invest in Punjab," he added. Pir Saad Ahsaanuddin observed that Punjab offered huge potential in agriculture, livestock and corporate farming sector. He quoted an example of Cholistan where he saw great potential of earning two billion dollars from agriculture and livestock exports.
He said in Cholistan, out of 6.6 million acres of land, 50,000 acres of land had good clean drinking water and provided an ideal location to develop livestock farming. "Keeping these facts in view, right now the Punjab government is endeavouring to arrange funding for development of livestock sector in this area through banks," he added.
Talking about short and long-term measures that the Board aimed at attracting local and foreign investors. He said Punjab did not have a commercialisation law and right now the Chief Minister was focussing on it, and hopefully the law would be made public in two weeks time.
"There is also no law on private-public partnership in the province and hence the Board is working to have this law at the earliest," he added. Regarding the biggest impediment in the way of investment, he said an investor had to deal with 26 departments in the province, whereas in a country like Oman the same investor had to approach just one department and the rest was done by the officials of that department.
"This is the true example of one-window operation and we are planning to introduce this sort of system in the province," he remarked. "Our role is of a facilitator; to create awareness among people of investment opportunities available in Punjab and assist them in fulfilling the formalities to materialise those opportunities," Pir Saad concluded.