BOI conference on CPEC: HBL, CMEC sign MoU for enhanced cooperation
China Economic Net
Lahore: Pakistani Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and China Machinery Engineering Cooperation (CMEC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation at the conclusion of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Industrial Cooperation Business-to-Business (B2B) Investment Conference here.
The Board of Investment (BOI), in collaboration with the Punjab government organized the B2B Investment Conference where Minister of State and Chairman BOI Muhammad Azfar Ahsan and Secretary BOI Fareena Mazhar were the keynote speakers, while other speakers included Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on CPEC Affairs Khalid Mansoor, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moinul Haque and Minister of Industries and Commerce Punjab Mian Aslam Iqbal.
Speaking at the conference, the Chairman BOI highlighted that CPEC Industrial Cooperation is an all-inclusive in its scope and open to third party participation and invited the business community from China and from all over the world to invest in Pakistan’s economic sectors.
Ahsan stressed that Pakistan had a liberal investment regime and apprised the participants on the various investor friendly policies recently introduced by the incumbent government including electric vehicle policy, mobile manufacturing, construction sector policies, sole enterprise Special Economic Zone, regulations 2020, SEZ Zone Enterprise Admin and Sale/Lease/Sublease of Plot Regulations 2021. The Chairman also informed the participants about “Pak-China B2B Investment Portal” which has been developed by BOI in collaboration with the China Council for International Investment Promotion and both local and Chinese companies are being encouraged to register for creating the possibility of materializing potential Joint Venture (JV) opportunities.
“Pakistan accords top priority to the development of Special Economic Zones under CPEC,” he remarked.
Ahsan elaborated that currently, out of the nine CPEC Special Economic Zones (SEZs), three are at an advance stage of development including Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Punjab, Rashakai SEZ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Dhabeji SEZ in Sindh and attractive fiscal incentives are being offered under SEZs which include a tax free period of 10 years and custom duty exemption on import of capital goods to both the developer and enterprises housed in the SEZs.
In her speech, Secretary BOI Fareena Mazhar stated that there were ample opportunities for foreign investors to invest with 100% equity or joint ventures in various fields with repatriation of investment and profit allowed with legal protection provisioned under the Acts of parliament to foreign investment.
The Secretary added that government has a uniform treatment for local and foreign investors along with 100 % repatriation of profits and dividends and there is no requirement of minimum investment for businesses startups.
While apprising the participants on “Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative”, Fareena Mazhar underscored that the platform had been established with a mechanism to transform the regulatory landscape across multifaceted tiers of government in Pakistan.
She maintained that several international corporations and businesses have a long history of association with Pakistan and were earning substantial return on their investments.
Therefore, businesses communities are invited to reap optimum benefits from the lucrative and liberal investment regime of the government and explore investment opportunities available in different sectors of national economy, she said.
