Zardari woos Chinese investors
Zardari invites Chinese builders and constructors to take advantage of Pakistan’s new investment environment.
GUANGZHOU:
President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday invited Chinese builders and constructors to take advantage of Pakistan’s new investment environment. The president invited them to build Zulfikarabad city in Sindh and other infrastructure projects in different parts of the country devastated by floods, in what he said was “a guaranteed win-win scenario both for Pakistan and the investors”.
President Zardari was of the view that the devastation caused by the recent floods had in fact opened new opportunities for rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure, as he stated, “Let us together convert this calamity into an opportunity for mutual benefit”.
He was addressing the Pakistan-China Economic Forum in the Chinese city of Guangzhou where the president had arrived to witness the 16th Asian Games.
Talking to the media, the president’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the president also used the Pakistan-China Economic Forum to announce that the government had decided to ease the restrictions on shareholdings in construction, telecom and finance projects thereby unlocking doors to investment in mega infrastructure projects.
“Let us further build on the political statement of our great leaders and build infrastructural connectivity projects including roads, bridges and a railway line connecting the Gwadar port to China,” the president said, while referring to former leaders Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mao Tse-Tung, who together were instrumental in enhancing communication systems between Pakistan and China, by establishing the Karakoram Highway previously.
“Pakistan is at the crossroads of huge markets in Asia, Central Asia and Middle East”, the president remarked, adding, “The location of our country, together with low cost labour and special incentives offers great opportunities to entrepreneurs”. Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan set the tone for Chinese entrepreneurs and welcomed their possible involvement in the reconstruction process. Babar said that the remarks prompted leading Chinese entrepreneur and vice chairman of China Chamber of Commerce and Board Chairman of China Railways Construction Corporation Li Guorui who announced dispatching a delegation of entrepreneurs from Guangdong to Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2010.
President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday invited Chinese builders and constructors to take advantage of Pakistan’s new investment environment. The president invited them to build Zulfikarabad city in Sindh and other infrastructure projects in different parts of the country devastated by floods, in what he said was “a guaranteed win-win scenario both for Pakistan and the investors”.
President Zardari was of the view that the devastation caused by the recent floods had in fact opened new opportunities for rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure, as he stated, “Let us together convert this calamity into an opportunity for mutual benefit”.
He was addressing the Pakistan-China Economic Forum in the Chinese city of Guangzhou where the president had arrived to witness the 16th Asian Games.
Talking to the media, the president’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the president also used the Pakistan-China Economic Forum to announce that the government had decided to ease the restrictions on shareholdings in construction, telecom and finance projects thereby unlocking doors to investment in mega infrastructure projects.
“Let us further build on the political statement of our great leaders and build infrastructural connectivity projects including roads, bridges and a railway line connecting the Gwadar port to China,” the president said, while referring to former leaders Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Mao Tse-Tung, who together were instrumental in enhancing communication systems between Pakistan and China, by establishing the Karakoram Highway previously.
“Pakistan is at the crossroads of huge markets in Asia, Central Asia and Middle East”, the president remarked, adding, “The location of our country, together with low cost labour and special incentives offers great opportunities to entrepreneurs”. Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan set the tone for Chinese entrepreneurs and welcomed their possible involvement in the reconstruction process. Babar said that the remarks prompted leading Chinese entrepreneur and vice chairman of China Chamber of Commerce and Board Chairman of China Railways Construction Corporation Li Guorui who announced dispatching a delegation of entrepreneurs from Guangdong to Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2010.