ISLAMABAD:Pakistan’s private sector must make serious efforts to attract sizeable investment from G-7 countries to meet their infrastructure needs besides bringing home manufacturing companies moving out of China.
This was stated by Coordinator to Federal Tax Ombudsman Meher Kashif Meher, while addressing as keynote speaker at a seminar here on “New World Economic Order” held under the aegis of Gold Ring Economic Forum (GREG), says a press release.
He said that the US has announced the launch of the partnership for global infrastructure and investment(PGII) with a seed money of $600 billion in collaboration with other G-7 countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.
He said program is fully intended to meet the infrastructure needs of developing countries so Pakistani private sector must take timey benefits of it.
He pointed out that already some small scale products such as a solar powered projects in Angola,a vaccine manufacturing facility in Senegal,and a $30 million investment in India increase food security and promote climate adaptation have been announced.
He said political turmoil, out dated taxation, regulatory and legal frameworks are attributed major factors in failure to attract foreign investments,which he added must be rectified on top priority in line with international trade transactions.
He urged the need to devise a viable strategy to attract Chinese manufacturing companies to Pakistan which are now fast moving to Vietnam due to domestic political issues.
Meher Kashif Younis said on the other hand China has been making its structural economic shift through self reliance and domestic consumption instead of relying on exports and foreign aid.
He said for most developing countries,this competition is an opportunity to further their economic interests as both China and the US have made it clear they would like keep their existing close relations with them.
He said since China doesn’t see any conflict between PGII and its BRI (Built and Road Initiatives) projects, Pakistan can explore how it can benefit both the US and Chinese initiatives.
While concluding he said China continues its global integration through free trade agreement and recently inked trade agreements with 14 Asia-pacific countries through the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP).
This is the world’s largest free trade agreement covering about one third of the world’s population and GDP, he added.