This was stated by the chairman Board of Investment (BoI) Saleem H Mandviwala while talking to newsmen here on Monday. DG BoI Nasreen Khan was also present on the occasion.

This expansion project involves an investment of $ 540 million to expand the production of steel by PSM.

He said that another Russian company will visit Pakistan in next two months to suggest on the revival of Pakistan Railways.

Similarly, Russian gas giant Gazprom will also visit Pakistan in next three months to negotiate for expanding drilling for oil and gas and for laying gas pipelines particularly, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan Pakistan gas pipeline (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

He said these decisions have been made during the visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to Russia where he invited Russian businessmen and large companies to invest in Pakistan.

Terming the visit a historic one, Mandviwala said that this is the first ever visit of any elected President to Russian in the last 37 years.

He said that lots of Russian delegations will come to Pakistan as Russian leadership including President Dmitry Medvedev have asked Russian conglomerates to invest in steel, energy, oil and gas sector in Pakistan.

He said Pakistan has signed four memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russians for cooperation in energy, dams and railway projects.

BoI has also inked MoU with its Russian counterpart National Investment Company for cooperation to attract investment in Pakistan, he added.

Talking of a meeting with Pakistan IT company on Monday, Mandviwala said that BoI will extend all support to Pakistani IT sector for collaboration with Indian IT companies.

He said that a delegation of PASHA has held a meeting with him to discuss the possibilities for cooperation with Indian companies.

PASHA president Jehan Ara said that visa was the most critical issue between Pakistan and India and this needs to be simplified to boost IT business between the two countries.