Daily Times

The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has expressed grave concerns over 50 percent fall in foreign direct investment (FDI) and called upon the government to make more conducive policies for attracting hefty investment in the country which was essential to steer the economy out of current troubles.

In a joint statement on Friday, President ICCI Ahmed Hassan Moughal, Senior Vice President Rafat Farid and Vice President Iftikhar Anwar Sethi said that according to State Bank of Pakistan’s latest report, Pakistan has fetched FDI amounted to $1.737 billion in July-June FY19 compared to $3.471 billion in the same period of FY18, depicting a decline of 50 percent, which should be a cause of concern for policymakers.

The ICCI office bearers said that the economy of Pakistan was facing many challenges as exports were not growing accordingly to potential and trade deficit was rising. They said that in these circumstances, promoting FDI was key requirement to improve the economy and urged that government should make better policies to encourage new investors.

Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that many countries including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have achieved fast economic growth by focus on FDI and stressed that Pakistan should also pay more attention to promoting FDI. He said that promoting FDI was important for Pakistan to supplement low domestic investment and saving rates, improve revenue growth, create jobs and reduce poverty.

The ICCI President said that FDI was also crucial for technical upgradation and modernization of the industrial base of the country to increase exports and urged that government should use all possible options to promote foreign investment as the potential of many sectors of Pakistan’s economy could not be realized without fetching FDI. He was of the view that facilitating the local investors was very important to improve FDI because when local investors would enhance investment in Pakistan, it would give more confidence to the foreign investors as well.

Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that government tax measures in annual budget have created more problems for business sector and urged that government should address concerns of business community on tax matter to facilitate the growth of business activities and attract more foreign investment in Pakistan.