Saudi Arabia eying investment in CPEC, Gwadar Port: envoy

Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Pakistan Nawaf Saeed Ahmad Al-Malkiy on Friday made a historic visit to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) and vowed to make the both brotherly Islamic countries stronger than ever trade partners. The Ambassador was speaking at a meeting with the office-bearers of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said that Saudi Arabia is looking toward investing in CPEC and Gwadar Port. He spoke highly on the issues of brotherly relations, strategic and bilateral trade relations between the two countries and said that concrete measures are being taken for enhancement of trade between the two brotherly countries.
Responding to a question regarding insufficient biometric facility centres for the Umrah Zaireen in the country, the Ambassador said that biometric system would be functioning in first week of December and added that the people above the age of 45 and below 12 are exempted from biometric system. He said that Etimad had been directed to set up at least 22 biometric facility centre across the country to facilitate the Umrah Zaireen.
"Pakistan is my country. It has a bright future and its progress and prosperity is for the entire Muslim Ummah," the Ambassador said. He said the people of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have strong and brotherly relations and these would further be strengthened with the exchange of trade and cultural delegations. He said a delegation of Saudi Commerce Ministry will visit Pakistan soon to negotiate on trade and investment.
He said there exists enormous scope to expand the economic relations between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. At the same time, Saudi businessmen can be motivated to come and invest in Pakistan to setup various industries which have lucrative opportunities. He urged the media to show positive portrait of Pakistan to the world that would attract foreign investment towards this heaven. "Who will invest in Pakistan amid projection of negative image like Kalashnikov?" he questioned.
LCCI Acting President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed called for solid measures to expand and promote trade between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia which is following decreasing trend from the last few years. He mentioned that in 2014, the volume of bilateral trade was almost $5 billion but in the following years, a serious slump was witnessed. From 2014 on, the two way trade between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia fell by 30 percent and 35 percent which reduced it to $2.2 billion in 2016.
He said that drastic descent was the result of consistent fall in imports and exports figures. The imports from Saudi Arabia contracted by 32 percent and 39 percent in last two years whereas the exports decreased by 15 percent and 12 percent respectively.
"Petroleum oils consist of almost half of the total imports made from Saudi Arabia. In 2014, Pakistan imported oils worth $2.85 billion which reduced to $870 million in 2016. Similarly, the decline in export of rice to Saudi Arabia caused the value of total exports to plunge from $510 million to $380 million in the same period of time.
He stated that a free-trade agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia needs to be negotiated. The signing of a bilateral investment treaty between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is also a possibility in near future. The LCCI Acting President also talked about vision 2030-related investments opportunities in Saudi Arabia and projects related to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan. Reconstruction and new development activity started in Saudi Arabia created new opportunities for Pakistani labour.
Our agriculture and industry need to be revived with the involvement of Saudi investors. He said that workers' remittances from this brotherly Islamic country play a substantial role in strengthening the balance of payment of Pakistan but it is a matter of concern that there was 6 percent fall in these remittances in July-October 2017 as compared to corresponding period in 2016.