PM invites Tajik investors to Pakistan citing govt’s facilitation, incentives

Dushanbe: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday invited the business community of Tajikistan to invest their capital in Pakistan, assuring them of all out facilitation by his government.

Addressing the Pakistan-Tajikistan Joint Business Forum, the prime minister said his government was already on the course of incentivizing and facilitating own business sector through different measures.

The prime minister is currently visiting here on two-day visit mainly to attend the SCO Summit here and is accompanied by high level delegation including the representatives of 67 companies of multiple sectors including textiles, minerals, pharmaceuticals, logistics and others.

The Forum was organized by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.

A total of 67 companies from Pakistan and more than 150 Tajik companies participated in the event.

A large number of B2B meetings were held among companies representing Textiles, Pharmaceuticals, Leather, fruits and vegetables, processed food, transport and logistics, construction, education, tourism and mining.

Fifteen MoUs were signed for joint ventures and many orders were booked by Pakistani exporters.

The prime minister, who was accompanied by his Commerce Advisor Abdul Razzak Dawood, praised Tajikistan’s cheap and clean energy, particularly hydroelectricity, saying “Unfortunately we have very expensive electricity in Pakistan.”

The premier said work on the CASA-1000 power transmission line would be expedited so Pakistan too to achieve benefit from clean energy.

He told the Tajik business community Pakistan was a 220 million nation and a huge market for investment and invited them to invest in Pakistan assuring them all out facilitation for benefit of the two countries.

He said the current Pak-Tajik trade was a miniscule and far below than the existing potential and the Tajik investors, as they come to Pakistan, would look how the government was incentivizing the business sector.

Regarding the situation in Afghanistan, the prime minister wished that peace was established in the country after 40 years of conflict. He said peaceful Afghanistan would pave way for regional connectivity.

Imran Khan, said as he was scheduled to meet Tajik President Emomali Rahmon during the visit, they would discuss the ways and would do everything specially for peace between Pashtun and Tajik ethnicities to ensure that there is an inclusive government in the war-torn country.

Pakistan will work together with Tajikistan and other neighbouring countries of Afghanistan to support the process of peace, progress and prosperity, he added.

Later, the prime minister along with his commerce advisor also responded to the questions from both Pakistani and Tajik businessmen.

The Forum began with welcoming remarks by the Qodirzoda Sadi, Chairman of the State Committee on Investments and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Addressing the event, Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood said that the objective of Pakistan was regional connectivity and enhanced regional trade.

He said the visit of President of Tajikistan to Pakistan in June this year, provided impetus to the historical ties between the two countries.

“We want to follow examples of ASEAN and EU in enhancing intra-regional trade and connectivity.”

He said, “You trade through our seaports and we will trade through your land routes. There are lot of challenges and it will take time, but we need to work together to overcome these problems. We want to have joint ventures in textiles, pharmaceutical sectors & logistics sectors.”

He said, “Private sector is the engine of growth, the driver of growth. I want to tell the business community that we are here in Tajikistan to make it easy for you to enter Central Asian markets and we are exploring all the sectors”.

On the sidelines of the Business Forum, the 4th meeting of Tajikistan-Pakistan Business Council was held.

The JBC meeting was co-chaired from the Tajikistan side by Akhunzadeh Jamshed, Chairman of Tajikistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and from the Pakistani side by Zahid Shah, Vice President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry. In the meeting, cooperation in textiles, pharmaceuticals and logistics sector was discussed.