China to invest USD 15bn in Pakistan’s petrochemicals sector: Secretary BOI

Federal Secretary, Board of Investment Fareena Mazhar on Sunday said Chinese companies were ready to invest US $15 billion in Pakistan’s petro-chemicals sector.

Under the said project, Chinese companies would invest in the petrochemical sector in Gwadar, in-cluding the project of energy pipeline from Gwadar to China, she told APP.

The secretary said bilateral talks were underway for investment in various projects related to Chinese investment in Pakistan.

It was hoped that in the future, Chinese companies would bring investment in Pakistan in the fields of energy, agriculture, tourism and others.

She said the government wanted to promote Small and Medium Enterprises culture in the country for bringing foreign investment and to create employ-ment opportunities in the country.

She said the government was introducing new SMEs policy as well as initiated the regulatory re-forms for better business regulations in the country.

Replying to a question, she informed that the ‘7th Reform Action Plan’ was mainly focusing on im-provements in firm entry regulations, reliability of electricity, tax regulations, trade regulations, credi-tors’ rights, better property rights, and court effi-ciency etc. and reforms in these areas play a major role in the process of economic development.

The Board of Investment was working hard to at-tract foreign investment in the country and improve the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ by cost of doing busi-ness in the country, she said.

In this regard, the BOI was working on about 50 reforms to create a conducive environment for busi-ness and enhance the industrialization in the coun-try.

The secretary said Pakistan Regulatory Moderniza-tion Initiatives was a key initiative of the govern-ment for the modernization and regulation of local business to provide a conducive business environ-ment in the country.

Fareena said implementation of these reforms, initi-ated by BOI, was part of the broader strategy of the government aimed at improving productivity and enhancing exports to achieve the objective of sus-tainable economic growth in the country.

The secretary said main objective of PRMI reforms strategy was to improve the entry and operational environment for business, focusing on the simplifi-cation and automation of the regulatory framework at all three government levels including federal, provincial and district level.

She said the vital success indicator of the initiative would be increased in the overall private sector and foreign direct investment level without compromis-ing the effectiveness of the various regulatory re-gimes.

Fareena said enabling a business environment played a pivotal role in attracting domestic and for-eign investment.