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Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Privatisation said that the
structural reforms, stabilization and the continuity of economic policies
being followed by the Government had achieved impressive progress on the macro
economic front. He stated this during a meeting with the Ambassador of the
Federal Republic of Germany Dr. Christoph Brummer, who met him here today.
He said that Pakistan during the last four years under the leadership of
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and the present government of Prime Minister
Zafarullah Jamali had worked hard to make the country pro-private sector by
developing conducive investment policies and in view of Pakistan German
friendly relations the economic & trade interaction needed to be accelerated
and further improved through exploiting the potential areas in IT, Telecom,
Energy, Oil & Gas, Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Agro based industries, Social
sectors, Petro-Chemicals, Infrastructure, Machinery manufacturing etc, he
said.
The Federal Republic of Germany being the 5th largest importer of Pakistani
products has emerged as one of the important trading partner of Pakistan.
Trade between Pakistan and Germany is being conducted in freely convertible
currency in terms of the Trade Agreement signed in 1957.
The Minister gave an overview of the economic progress achieved by Pakistan
through macro economic stabilization, consistency in economic policies and
economy oriented reforms and stated that the foreign exchange reserves had
touched the ever highest figure giving enough room and confidence for
upgrading the country's credit rating.
The Minister also briefed the envoy regarding the key features of Pakistan's
Investment and Privatisation Policies and invited German companies to invest
in all the potential sectors. The investment opportunities allowed 100 %
equity to foreign and local investors in all the sectors and that too without
any restriction to takeout their dividends, he said. The Minister appraised
the envoy of the facilitating role of Board Of Investment (BOI) and assured
full support and cooperation to the business group for establishing their
businesses in Pakistan as well as to assist in finding suitable local partners
for joint ventures.
He said that the holding of Pakistan Business Day held at Berlin last
September was a landmark in the growth of Pak-German economic interaction in
the private sector. It has offered business opportunities to German
Businessmen and experts, provide opportunities for contact between Pakistani
and German Businessmen and it would further facilitate business partnership/
joint ventures between the two sides.
Dr. Christoph Brummer, German envoy to Pakistan said that the German
companies were keen to invest in Hydel and Coal Energy, Renewable Energies,
Water Resources Management/ Dams, Information Technology, Telecom and Textile
sectors and informed that a Business Delegation from Germany would visit
Pakistan soon to identify more investment opportunities and to accelerate the
pace of economic interaction between both the countries and hoped for further
strengthening of Pakistan-German bilateral economic relations.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Pakistan German Business Forum (PGBF)
and its counterpart in Germany Deutsche-Pakistan Forum (DPF) was signed in
this regard for promoting the investment, trade and business relations with
Pakistan in September 2003 Investment moot held at Berlin.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment is
leaving for Germany to lead Pakistani delegation and to address two-day
Munich Management Colloquium being held from March 9 to 10, 2004. The theme of
this year Colloquium will be "The Future of Growth".