Pakistan has doubled down its efforts to erect a sound economic order by tweaking necessary domestic laws and opening up new avenues for foreign investment. The newly-formed Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a conglomerate of civil-military combine in crucial decision-making, has approved more than 28 projects to attract investors from the Middle East and, especially, Arab States. The new aspect in this policy is the resolve to handle the move with resolute determination of one-window operation. The impediments that usually come the way of foreign investors, such as bureaucratic red-tapism and a lethargic attitude, will no longer be there as the entire framework of operations has been streamlined.
For the first time, Pakistan has named and listed out projects as prosperous as Reko Diq mineral extraction in Balochistan and schemes in food and agriculture that usually are of immense importance on global investment canvas. Moreover, realms such as information technology, petroleum and power sectors have been thrown open for big-ticket FDI, with the lawful assurance that investors will not be tail-teased for parking in their valued money.
It is a good start, to say the least. The fact that the proposed Gulf States investment could hit above $28 billion supplements the staggering input of CPEC, which is to the tune of $60 billion. This new hybrid evolved pattern must see the light of the day and should not end up as earlier ventures that were seen lingering in pipelines for reasons of incompetent and corrupt handling.
Pakistan is on the brink of default, and has hardly been rescued by China, Saudi Arabia and Emirates who had doled out tranches to keep it afloat. Moreover, the $3 billion IMF Standby agreement also reminds us that economic health is in doldrums, and can only be sustained if necessary policy-orientation comes its way.
The SIFC and CPEC can only be a success, if the policy approach is backed by political stability. This is the time to start picking the threads, and create a conflict-free environment as is the case in countries that have made it big by opening their doors to foreign in investors. Nothing should ail us to lag behind.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2023.
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