-Peshawar hosts investment conference on CPEC
-Chinese Ambassador invites investors from across the world to invest in SEZs under CPEC -KP Finance Minister says province wants more investment under CPEC
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR: Chinese Ambassador in Pakistan Nong Rong on Thursday said that China welcomed the participation of third parties in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that would further strengthen the mega project.
Addressing the CPEC Industrial Cooperation Investment Conference here, the envoy invited the investors from across the world to invest in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being established under the CPEC.
“The Chinese embassy wants to work closely with BoI and any third party to promote development of CPEC, he added. The event was organized by Federal Board of Investment (BoI).
Nong Rong said in Rashakai SEZ, both Pakistan and China were mutually working to ensure security, visa facilitation, and other infrastructure facilities.
Chairman BoI Atif Bukhari said the second phase of the CPEC had just commenced and the Federal BoI would continue to take lead on investment promotion, facilitation, and industrial cooperation.
The BoI Chairman invited the business community from not only China but also from other countries to come and invest in Pakistan’s economic sectors.
He said the government had already launched conducive policies such as electric vehicle policy, mobile manufacturing, construction sector policies, sole enterprise Special Economic Zone, Regulations 2020, and SEZ Zone Enterprise Admin and Sale/Lease/Sub-lease of Plot Regulations 2021, to increase investment in Pakistan.
“Pakistan accords top priority to the development of Special Economic Zones under CPEC,” he said adding that currently, out of the nine CPEC SEZs, two were in advance stage of development including Rashakai SEZ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Faisalabad, Punjab.Bukhari informed that attractive fiscal incentives were being offered under SEZs such as 10-year tax holiday and custom duty exemption on import of Capital Goods to both the developer and enterprises housed in the SEZs.
KP Minister for Finance, Taimur Jhagra said representatives from a number of countries including Switzerland, and Bosnia were present in the conference which indicated that a lot of countries were showing interest to join this mega multibillion dollar project.
He invited the investors to also look into a range of tourism opportunities in the province.
“We want the focus of China-Pakistan Economic Cooperation (CPEC) to remain on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and also want major projects like Peshawar-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway, Chashma Right Bank Left Canal DI Khan to become part of CPEC,” said Taimur Saleem Khan.
Taimoor Saleem Khan said many sectors in KP can attract investments such as mineral sector, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), tourism, energy sector, hydro-energy sector and health sector.
Taimoor Saleem Khan, there is a big opportunity of public-private partnership investment in KP’s health sector.
Taimoor Saleem Khan said, “The speed of CPEC projects will gain momentum and there are possibilities to include more projects in CPEC in KP,” he said.
As for the tourism sector of KP, Taimoor Khan said there is a fantastic opportunity for Chinese companies to invest and promote tourism in this province. “For tourism there would always be a niche for international tourists; some areas of this province are referred to as Pakistan’s Switzerland,” he said.
