Coca Cola plans $200m investment in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Coca Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited Group Director Public Affairs Atilla Yerlikaya, while visiting the Board of Investment (BoI), expressed interest in investing $200 million in the country in a bid to expand the company’s production.

Yerlikaya informed BoI team about the company’s future investment plans to establish two new plants in Faisalabad and Islamabad. Coca Cola intended to set up its units at the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), he said.

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“The company has already invested $500 million during this year on upgrading existing plants in the country,” said Yerlikaya.

He sought BoI’s support for rationalisation of the tax regime in Pakistan and curbing infringement as some groups were violating industrial property rights and the practice was not only defaming original brands but was also reducing the country’s revenue.

BoI Chairman Miftah Ismail told Coca Cola delegation that Pakistan had one of the most liberal foreign investment regimes in South Asia.

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“100% foreign equity is permitted in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors as the country has a more market-oriented economy with a rapidly growing private sector,” he said.

Ismail said the BoI would extend full support to Coca Cola and suggested that the company should establish one of its units at the Faisalabad SEZ.