LAHORE: Pakistan is a good destination for investment as it offers an excellent platform to UK businessmen for being a gateway to landlocked Central Asian states and the Middle East in supply of goods and services.
These views were expressed by Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh while speaking at a seminar on “Business prospects in Pakistan”, arranged by the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.
The LCCI president, who was leading a 37-strong business delegation, said Pakistan being situated in the heart of Asia provided a gateway for businesses looking to expand into the Middle East and South Asian markets.
Sheikh said Pakistan was open for business and entrepreneurs and investors could play a major role in its economic recovery as the government was committed to ensuring that the country became an attractive destination for them.
He underlined the need for collaboration among dynamic institutions for exploring business opportunities, which would go a long way in bringing much-needed positive turnaround in Pakistan’s economy.
The LCCI delegation expressed interest in collaboration and joint ventures with UK-based companies.
“We are here to play our due role to explore ways to promote investment and support businesses. We believe that our efforts will contribute to increasing trade between Pakistan and the UK to £2.5 billion by 2015, which is the vision of prime ministers of Pakistan and UK,” Sheikh said.
“Our economy is growing at around 3.5% to 4%, exports have increased to the record level of $25 billion, law and order situation has significantly improved and inflation has been checked,” Sheikh said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2012.
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Last year, Nestle Pakistan's chief Ian Donald summed up the rising demand for his company's products as follows: “It’s a common perception that China and India are much bigger in terms of growth than Pakistan. But for Nestle, the per capita consumption of our products in Pakistan is twice as much as we have in China and India.” It should be noted that Nestle is the world's largest packaged food company.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/08/pakistani-middle-class-pushes-car-sales.html
Record earnings by foreign owned companies in Pakistan is a testament to the excellent business opportunities in Pakistan.
Pakistan "termed" good investment destination by Pakistan???. Now thats a surprise.
Misleading heading. The LCCI President who has led a delegation to attract investment would ofcourse say that Pakistan was a good centre of investment. The title seemed to imply that some neutral 3rd party had made that assessment.
"The LCCI president, who was leading a 37-strong business delegation, said Pakistan being situated in the heart of Asia provided a gateway for businesses looking to expand into the Middle East and South Asian markets."
Sorry? Exactly HOW does Pakistan serve as a gateway to South Asian markets?
At a recent conference of Pakistani entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Dr. Naveed Sherwani of Silicon Valley based OpenSilicon talked about his reasons for setting up his company's chip design centers in Lahore and Islamabad by hiring 67 Pakistani design engineers. Sherwani said OpenSilicon considered adding staff at their existing design center in Bangalore, India and also considered Shanghai, China for expansion before choosing Pakistan. The key reasons include availability of top talent, lower turn-over and lower costs in Lahore and Islamabad. Comparing turn-over, he said it's about 15% in Pakistan versus 30% in India. Answering a question on power outages and security concerns, he said both are manageable. Stand-by generators alleviate the problems caused by load shedding. And, being a frequent visitor to Pakistan, he feels quite safe there.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2012/06/open-forum-2012-pakistani-american.html