‘Proposed investment policy to incentivise FDI’

The proposed Investment Policy 2020 will provide much needed incentives to attract maximum Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), said Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) President Ihtasham Javed. “FDI is imperative for comprehensive and sustainable industrial growth.” He was addressing a two-day digital conference organised by the Executive Development Institute (EDI) of the National School of Public Policy (NSPP). The topic of this online course was ‘Enabling environment for Ease of Doing Business (EDB)’. The FCCI president claimed that Pakistan was a role model for developing countries in 1960s but nationalisation in 1970s nullified the entire economic gains. “As a result, unprecedented retrogressive growth initiated which was still haunting the nation as well as economic managers.” Later different, he added, ‘formula’ policies were introduced which also failed to yield any tangible results due to non-consistency in policies. He further said during this period successive governments introduced adhoc and cosmetic policies due to limited breathing space and thus they failed to dispel the genuine grievances and reservations of the private sector. He termed the CPEC as a major step for economic development with hefty FDI and resolution of energy related problems. “The second phase started with relocation of hi-tech Chinese industries in close collaboration with Pakistani investors. A