Pakistan needs more Chinese investment: Imran Khan

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged Iron Brother China to make more investments in Pakistan to accelerate industrialization and enhance job opportunities.

Chairing a meeting on facilitating Chinese investors in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being set up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), PM Khan also directed the authorities concerned to make land and tax incentives available to attract more and more Chinese investors.

“Pakistan needs investment, especially from China, to accelerate industrialization and provide jobs to its growing population,” he said, according to official details released after the meeting.

Pakistan, he stressed, “needs investment to accelerate industrialisation. It is critical to create maximum employment opportunities for our growing population, 65 per cent of which are under the age of 35.”

The PM said the concerned authorities need to take all possible measures to provide land, electricity and gas connections, and tax incentives to attract more and more Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan and populate the SEZs.

PM Khan was earlier briefed that out of the total 27 SEZs in the country. He was told that work on five SEZs including Dhabeji in Sindh, Rashakai in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Bostan in Balochistan, Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Punjab and Gwadar in Balochistan was in full swing.

The PM was informed that an effective single window operation facility is being set up at each of these SEZs and a Facilitation Center in CPEC Authority to resolve all issues of the potential Chinese investors under one roof.

The meeting was attended by Chinese ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong, Federal Ministers Shaukat Tarin, Khusro Bakhtiar, Asad Umar, Hammad Azhar, Advisor on Commerce Abdul Razzak Dawood and other senior officers.

The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of China’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The CPEC is a collection of infrastructure and other projects under construction throughout Pakistan since 2013.

Originally valued at US $ 46 billion, the projects are now worth more than US $ 62 billion. The BRI was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.