British American Tobacco clarifies: ‘Fresh investment in Pakistan, no closure in Malaysia’

ISLAMABAD: British American Tobacco (BAT) Wednesday clarified that the BAT was bringing fresh investment in Pakistan, but not closing business in Malaysia.

According to a clarification issued by the BAT here on Wednesday, reference to the British American Tobacco (BAT) setting up its shared business services in Pakistan, it was reported shifting of these operations from Malaysia to Pakistan.

This statement is factually incorrect and BAT would like to clarify that the setup is being established in parallel to its business in Malaysia, which will serve Asia Pacific and Middle East region.

This development would add Pakistan to the list of countries such as Malaysia, Romania, and Costa Rica where BAT operates its service hubs for servicing 180 entities across the globe for finance, human resources, information technology and other functions.

The BAT’s investment in Pakistan will create thousands of jobs over the next five years and would also serve as a talent incubator creating global careers prospects and generating USD 100 million annually in service exports initially, with potential to increase further in future.

The Prime Minister’s Advisor on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, praised the management of the PTC for having accomplished this task because it was the first time after many years that a multinational has shifted its shared services hub to Pakistan.

Dawood announced that the government of Pakistan will facilitate the company in fulfilling the legal and regulatory requirements for establishing the organisation.

He hoped that this would encourage other multinational subsidiaries in Pakistan to make efforts with their principals for moving such shared services organisations to Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020