K-P sees more investment from Chinese, other firms

CM says favourable policies have been implemented to woo investors

BEIJING: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Parvez Khattak has said that he expects more investment from Chinese and other foreign companies in Pakistan and K-P under the One Belt, One Road initiative.

“The government of Pakistan has already implemented favourable industrial policies under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to attract foreign investment and K-P is also offering rebate of about 5% for industrial projects,” said Khattak in an interview with Global Times of China published on Thursday.

“Such policies and opportunities in the province have helped bring back investors over the past four years, after tough times when there was no industry and investor left in the province,” he added.

The chief minister, who was on an official visit to Beijing, said meetings with Chinese investors were very successful and he saw great interest among companies in pouring money into Pakistan due to abundant opportunities.

“We are open to anybody who is ready to invest in Pakistan and the projects I brought are all profitable, very attractive for all investors,” the chief minister said, adding the projects included road construction, tourism, information technology and others.

He said misperception that K-P was not safe played a part in keeping the investors away, but security was not an issue. “Those who visited K-P know it is as safe as other parts of Pakistan and we make sure that we provide security for the investors.”

Khattak pointed out that the province had created a force of 4,000 trained policemen for the security of investors in addition to tens of thousands of Pakistan Army personnel assigned for the protection of CPEC route.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2017.

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