Investor-friendly policies play a pivotal role in attracting or restricting investment from foreign businesses
FAISALABAD: Foreign investors always consider the strong points and the weak points of an economic structure and the policies of a government while deciding in favour of or against a potential investment opportunity. Needless to mention investor-friendly policies play a pivotal role in attracting or restricting investment from foreign businesses or entrepreneurs.
Pakistan is a country identified by Jim O’Neill, a British economist, in a research paper as having a high potential of becoming among the world’s largest economies in the 21st century. Pakistan is hot consumer market due to its fast-growing population of 207 million people. However, the country has failed to attract significant international investment other than from China in recent years, but after the successful visits to different countries by Prime Minister Imran Khan, foreign investors from countries like Malaysia have expressed their interest in investing in Pakistan. Foreign investment companies willing to pour investment in Pakistan include names as big as JW Forland, ExxonMobil, and Suzuki Automobile.
All this investment will not only create jobs for the population here but will also provide a positive stimulus to other economic indicators. The previous census revealed that Pakistan has more than 100 million youngsters. With that, technical education is the key to survive in the age of mechanised production processes.
Skilled and cheaper labour available in Pakistan is already a huge attraction to foreign investors. Pakistan is a gifted country with an ideal geopolitical location. To make the economic wheel moving at a positive pace investor-friendly policies and a business-conducive environment are a must.
Awais Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2018.
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