Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammed Mian Soomro on Friday reiterated the government’s resolve to facilitate foreign as well as local investors in line with vision of Prime Minister to revive State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and turn them into profit oriented enterprises. “We welcome the foreign investment in Pakistan and as per the vision of PM. We will provide all possible facilities and support and necessary information to investors,” he added.
In this regard, he said roadshows are most effective way of reaching out to the potential investors in an efficient manner, this strategy has the potential to take the marketing at the next level.
He said that the Ministry of Privatization has started a series of roadshows with international and national investors for the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). The meetings with renowned investors consortium from Korea and China were held on Friday as well, he said adding that so far leading investors consortium from China, Korea and Russia have been interacted with, which have shown keen interest in the investment potential of Pakistan in general and Steel Mills in particular.
Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammed Mian Soomro, Federal Secretary Privatization, financial and legal advisers and senior officers of the ministry responded to the queries from the potential investors. Pakistan Steel Mills is non- functional since 2015, and the government has come up with a unique and most feasible transaction structure for the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills, the 51% to 74% shares of newly carved out subsidiary of PSM namely Steel Corp would be divested through a competitive and transparent bidding process.
After the publication of EOIs renowned national and international investors consortiums responded; consequently, the Ministry has arranged for the roadshows started from September 13 and will continue till September 23. The revival of Pakistan Steel Mills and its functioning on its full capacity is the prime focus of this whole process, its revival would augur well for the economy of the country by fulfilling the indigenous demand for iron and steel, which currently is imported from China, Germany and Japan.
The revival of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSMC) would be a unique transaction on account of the fact that, after the closure of Steel Mills and various attempts to revive it, this is the first time after 16 years that we have come this far due to the unrelenting efforts from the Ministry.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of next year.
