ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif Tuesday asked the Italian businessmen to explore vast investment opportunities in various sectors of Pakistan including infrastructure, energy, agriculture and technology.
“Pakistan has become a very lucrative destination for the investors from all over the world especially after the launch of mega project of China Pakistan Economic Corridore (CPEC)”, he said addressing as the chief guest at Pakistan-Italy Business and Investment Forum.
He said CPEC was not only a project which is confined only to Pakistan but this would integrate the whole region.
Khawaja Asif said Italy being an important economic and trade partner of Pakistan could also fetch the opportunities offered by divers sectors of the country.
Earlier in his welcome speech, Dr Miftah Ismail, Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) welcomed the Italian delegation and said Pakistan valued its relations with Italy and wanted to further enhance their ties specially in trade sector.
He said the Italian delegation has come here to explore business and investment opportunities and taking keen interest in investment in various sectors of economy including trade, technology, infrastructure, food and agriculture sectors.
He said total volume of trade between the two countries stood at US $ 1.1 billion and was in favour of Pakistan and “we are looking forward to furtehr enhance the bilateral trade volume.”
He said over the last three and half years period, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s economy had strengthened significantly.
He said by 2025, Pakistan would become the 5th largest middle income population in the world, therefore it offers a huge consumer market and this was the high time for Italian businessmen to invest in Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion the Italian Deputy Minister for Economic Development Ivan Scalfarotto said they were visiting Pakistan to explore the business and trade opportunities and do log term relationship in various sector of economy including infrastructure, renewable energy, ports, agriculture, textile, fashion design, railways and technical fields.
He also appreciated CPEC and termed it thebiggest global development project.
He added CPEC would also help connectivity in the region and beyond benefiting a large number of people.
He also expressed satisfaction over rapidly improving macro economic indicators of Pakistan.
He hoped that Pakistan’s economic growth rate would further get pace in the years to come and its debt to GDP ratio and fiscal deficit ratio would also decline in future.
He said Italy was ready to help Pakistan in satisfying its growing energy demands and introducing new technology in the agricultural sector of Pakistan.
