Postponed: K-P investment road show rescheduled for June 2015

New committee has been set up to finalise arrangements, provide an updated schedule in 15 days.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has rescheduled the investment road show it had planned to host in Dubai this month over what is said to be a lack of proper arrangements.

“Now the road show—an exhibition to heighten K-P’s investment potential—will be held in June next year,” K-P Board of Investment Vice Chairman Mohsin Aziz told The Express Tribune.

A new committee has been established to finalise arrangements and provide an updated schedule over the next 15 days, he added. The panel’s first meeting is scheduled for Monday evening.

K-P’s Chamber of Commerce and Industries President Zahidullah Shinwari confirmed the road show has been rescheduled.

“I wrote a letter to the chief minister and chief secretary three days ago, calling attention to the lack of arrangements, ongoing protests and the general law and order situation,” said Shinwari. “It is not possible to attract foreign investors in such a climate, so I urged them to first undertake detailed ground work,” he added.

Earlier, official sources had said the event in Dubai—scheduled from September 23 to September 25—was cancelled because of the unavailability of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak. However, several industrialists persuaded the government to defer instead of cancel.

According to Aziz, the K-P government agreed financial road show in five countries –including Dubai, Turkey and UK.

The provincial government had initially proposed to hold it in March. However, the plan was postponed until September. It had hired an event management company for this purpose and had made a payment of Rs15 million.

Shinwari had said hotel bookings had also been made.High-ranking civil official and industrialists had also visited the venue on September 16 to finalise the arrangements.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2014.