Government ministers and Board of Investment chairman on Wednesday failed to give exact volume of Saudi investment during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's visit to the country on February 16, as they flatly disowned more than $ 20 billion Saudi investment in next few years as claimed by the Board of Investment (BOI).
However, official sources confirmed to Business Recorder that total projected figure of Saudi investment would be $21 billion, adding that 8 MoUs worth $21 billion will be signed during the visit of the crown prince. Ahead of the joint presser, officials of the BOI distributed a press release among the media persons in which it claimed, "The potential volume of investment from Saudi Arabia is more than US $ 20 billion in the next few years."
But interestingly, not a single minister bothered to elaborate the $ 20 billion figure throughout the press conference despite releasing an official statement by BOI which prompted this correspondent to put a question to the panel of ministers to divulge on the billions of dollars investment as mentioned in the BOI's official statement.
However, after whispering in BoI chairman's ear Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said: "The BOI chairman is here, but he is not going to own the figure issued by his department." He promptly added that the media should wait for another two days during which things will become clearer on how munch investment is going to come from Saudi Arabia. After wrapping up the presser, the ministers and the BoI chairman went through the press release and later said: "It was a mistake."
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