Pakistan has tremendous potential for investment but our country has still not been able to fetch desired foreign investment, stated Mr.Mahfooz Elahi, President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry while addressing a meeting of foreign investment committee.

Business community expressed concern on the declining influx of foreign investment and said that government should take proactive steps to improve the situation. He said that Pakistan has huge potential of investment in many sectors, which requires concrete planning for execution.

Mr.Mahfooz Elahi said that that security is the key to development, thus local and foreign investors must be provided a peaceful environment to incline them for investments. He said that law and order situation has improved but a comprehensive action plan is required to be developed to overcome this critical issue.

He said that privatization process must be put on fast track and joint venture investments should be encouraged to turn the loss making organizations to profitable one.  A number of state owned organizations are not delivering the desired results and eating up a huge amount of money, which must the privatized on urgent basis, he added.

President suggested that Board of investment in collaboration with the chambers of commerce & industry across Pakistan must organize seminars on investment plans to encourage investments in small and medium size projects. He said that our foreign missions abroad must also hold seminars to inform potential foreign investors about the opportunities in various sectors, especially in power, agriculture, infrastructure development, education and health sectors.

He said that it is encouraging that government is expecting 5 billion dollars of foreign investment in next three years as per information investors from US, Gulf region, Japan and Korea have shown interest to invest in Thar coal and thermal sector for power generation. The Chilean company Rikodok is planning to invest in cooper sector, thus government should provide all sorts of facilitation through consensus with the stakeholder organizations to fetch investment in this sector, Mr.Mahfooz Elahi stated.

Mr.Mahfooz Elahi said that though 700 foreign companies are operating in Pakistan and but our country badly needs more foreign investments for greater economic activity and generation of employment.