Punjab CM lures investors with special tax incentives

Shehbaz addresses international seminar on business opportunities in Punjab

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while inviting foreign companies to invest in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab, on Monday assured investors that they will not face any bureaucratic hurdles while materialising their projects in the province.

“I guarantee all foreign investors that their investments in Punjab will be secure and they will not have to bribe anybody nor will their investments succumb to any red-tapism,” Shehbaz said, while speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day international seminar on business opportunities.

The seminar was organised by the Punjab Industries Department and Punjab Board of Investment and Trade.



Encouraging foreign investors to move forward and invest in this part of the world, the chief minister said: “Peace is necessary for investment as Pakistani nation has rendered invaluable sacrifices for peace.”

“Terrorism and fanaticism has damaged the national economy and obstructed economic activates but now peace has prevailed in Pakistan,” he added.

This is the second seminar organised by the Punjab government under the theme: “Punjab means Business”. The seminar was attended by around 600 businesses, multinationals, foreign investors, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and chief executive officers of foreign companies like China, Turkey, the UK, Sweden, Norway, the UAE, Korea and Pakistan.



While the first conference organised back in 2015 ended up in signing of more than 145 MoUs, this time investors may reap the fruits from special incentives already offered to them like fiscal incentives, exemption from income tax for green field industrial undertakings, reduction of corporate tax for FDI from 31% to 20%, tax credit for multiple years to setup new industries, etc.

“Investors are masters and their investment helps boost trade and economic activities in the country, besides promoting millions of new job related opportunities,” Sharif continued, adding: “It also proves very beneficial to deal with poverty and joblessness issues. This is why local and foreign investors are very respectable for us.”

Talking about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Sharif said Pakistan was the first recipient and beneficiary of China’s One Belt-One Road (OBOR) development strategy devised by President Xi Jinping.



“One Belt, One Road starts with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Pakistan is the first-ever beneficiary of this. Under CPEC, various projects have completed and many are either near to completion or underway on a fast track,” he said.

“The OBOR is not limited to Pakistan alone, as it is a message of globalisation for all countries by replacing confrontation with concentration, promoting healthy competition, harmony, prosperity and progress and connectivity through sea, rail and road routes.

“CPEC is the first fruit of OBOR under which several projects are being completed. And it never happened in the history of Pakistan,” he said.



Earlier, Punjab Finance Minister Doctor Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said: “In Punjab, they are offering an impressive 59 investment opportunities with a total value of $8.9 billion.”

“Almost 50% from these projects amounting to $3.02 billion will be executed under the public-private partnership mode and remaining projects will be executed under other modes,” Pasha said.

“The modes – B2B and G2G – include eight projects in the communication sector, another eight in the livestock and dairy sector, seven in mines and minerals, five in energy, five in infrastructure and four in the transportation sector.