ISLAMABAD, Mar 9 (APP):
With the government’s economic managers pushing hard to steer country out of economic challenges, the fiscal year 2025 witnesses a progress in foreign direct investment trends with number of countries showing willingness in different sectors.
Therefore, as compared to last three years, during 2025, the experts see a progress in the trend of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan, due to the government’s holistic and comprehensive economic policies and recent bilateral and multilateral negotiations for foreign investment, has raised hopes for increased investment during days ahead.
As the country is also gradually heading towards macroeconomic stability, now its economy is building on a strong foundation for sustainable economic growth.
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb also received special confidence from investors during his last visit to Middle East, European Union, United States, Central Asian States and Azerbaijan.
The Minister emphasized collaboration in areas of digital infrastructure, digital economy, digital foreign direct investment (FDI), digital skills and digital governance leading the country towards greater digitalization, modernization and e-commerce, the real factors of a smart and knowledge-based economy in the days to come.
Apart from this Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are also showing willingness to come with a huge portfolio of investment of more than $12 billion and now Saudi Arabia’s popular fast-food chain Al Baik is gearing up to enter the Pakistani market soon.
Saudi investments are growing and agreements between both the countries have now exceeded US$ six billion. Al Baik is on its way to Pakistan, and Aramco has already opened its fuel stations in Pakistan.
Additionally, Qatar intends to invest $3 billion, Azerbaijan plans to contribute $2 billion as Pakistan has also signed a port development agreement with Abu Dhabi.
Recently Federal Minister for Board of Investment, Privatization and Communications, Abdul Aleem Khan, along with his delegation held a meeting with Israfel Mammadov, CEO of the State Oil Fund, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
After the visit, talking to the media Federal Minister Abdul Aleem Khan had said that Azerbaijan signed an agreement to invest US$ two billion in different sectors including energy and oil.
According to Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Pakistan, Khazar Farhadov during recent meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, a US$ two billion investment in Pakistan was announced by an MOUs was signed.
“This will bring dividends to both of the countries. One-month time had been given to finalize the projects and agreements in various sectors would be signed in April this year during the visit of the Azerbaijan President to Pakistan,” the ambassador told APP.
He said that this will be the first quantum jump in our trade and investment relations and will be a huge reflection of bilateral economic and trade ties between both sides.
Meanwhile, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Pakistan, Alisher Tukhtaev also informed that during recent visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Uzbekistan, the negotiation on a $ seven billion project of construction of the Trans-Afghan Railway concluded by both sides.
“Implementation of Trans-Afghan Railways project was an special focus during negotiations that is expected to serve as a powerful stimulus for trade and economic integration to numerous countries,” he stated.
From last year, Pakistan has been chasing public and private investments in state-owned enterprises, oil and gas, agriculture and gas exploration, the aviation industry, mining and other sectors of the economy.
In bilateral negotiations, Saudi Arabia has also agreed to increase its promised investment in Pakistan by another $ 650m to $2.8bn and signed seven MoUs during Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif’s just-concluded last visit to KSA.
At the end of 2024 a Saudi delegation, led by the Saudi Investment Minister, had concluded 27 MoUs worth $2.2bn in Islamabad.
Noting these developments, President Federation Pakistan Chamber of Commerce, Atif Ikram has hoped that after economic stabilization, the country would move to sustainable economic growth and now Pakistan receives good news from different countries about enhanced foreign direct investment.
It is worth mentioning that during fiscal year 2024, Pakistan received $568.20 million from various friendly countries including China, $358 million from Hong Kong, $268 million from the UK, $137 million from the USA, $100 million from Singapore, $87 million from UAE, $74 million from Saudi Arabia, $33 million from Malaysia and $10 million from South Korea.
It seems that the country is now receiving the dividends of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) removing all structural, bureaucratic, legal, economic and financial barriers to attract more and more inflows of FDIs in the country.
Presently, all institutions are on the same page striving hard to stabilize the macro-economy through meaningful meetings and negotiations pledging all possible facilities to the potential investors and businessmen to make investments in the country.
As the economic team of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government on its toes to attract foreign direct investment in energy, EVs, lithium batteries, green technologies, hydrogen power generation, ICT, artificial intelligence, hybrid agriculture, human capital and last but not least, metals and mining sectors, it is validly hoped that these investments would further strengthen our macro-economy achieving the missing elements of stability, sustainability and innovation.
APP/sha/maz