(December 23, 2019)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said the economy can be improved if FPCCI starts playing an active role.
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He said that the confidence of investors is improving which is resulted in improved foreign investment but it will not jump to a satisfactory level unless weaknesses in the system are not addressed.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that foreign direct investment has jumped by 78 percent during the first five months of this fiscal to $1.156 billion while $326 million was repatriated during this period.
The former minister noted that the flow of investment from Norway and China was 56 percent of the whole while the telecommunications sector attracted 280 million dollars.
The financial business attracted $131 million, power sector investment remained $54 million while the construction sector investment which was $243 million during the first five months of the last year dipped to 7.5 million dollars.
However, he noted that interest of the Prime Minister Imran Khan to revive the construction sector can improve overall situation in this critical sector.
He said that reforms are necessary to attract more investment which will boost GDP, production, technology, jobs, and Forex reserves.
He welcomed the jump in the foreign investment but noted that it is still insignificant in comparison with other regional economies and it is not enough to resolve our problems.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that government has repeatedly announced relaxations and incentives to the local and foreign investment but it was not worked as projected therefore the whole issue of investment should be revisited.
He said that the incompetence of FPCCI has barred economic development and this institution should play its role in national development.
