Daily Times (Pakistan) | Wednesday, February 03, 2010
FO spokesman says country has 8.25m hectares of land that can be cultivated to cater to global food demand
By Sajjad Malik
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has identified at least 80 projects in the energy, infrastructure, agriculture, health and education sectors for potential investors from the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) forum under the Public-Private Partnership programme, Daily Times has learnt.
According to diplomatic sources, Islamabad identified the projects at the FODP’s first Public-Private Partnership Conference held in Dubai on January 26. The conference was co-chaired by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Ali Nahayan and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Sources said work on some of the proposed projects would initiate soon, as the government had already received numerous enquiries from potential investors from the 20 countries present at the conference. The investors promised to take advantage of Pakistan’s investor-friendly environment, sources added.
“The tangible benefits of the FODP are now becoming visible, as the conference has opened countless channels for direct foreign investment in Pakistan,” sources said.
They said the government was already busy making arrangements for the next Public-Private Partnership conference that would be held either in Karachi or Islamabad after some time.
They said the Dubai conference was a unique event, as for the first time, over 400 delegates – including Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and 250 corporate sector representatives – got together to explore potential investment opportunities in the country.
The investors were offered to finance projects in the energy, infrastructure development, agriculture, and education and health sectors.
Separately, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told Daily Times that the FODP was not a donors’ forum, but a platform to attract investors to Pakistan. The FODP, as the name suggests, is aimed at helping Pakistan improve its security situation and the economy, he added.
Basit said Pakistan needed heavy investment in various sectors. He said the country’s energy sector needs would reach almost 150 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) in the next 15 years from the present demand of 63 MTOE.
Unused land: Basit said Pakistan was primarily an agrarian economy, but only 39 percent of the 57.05 million hectares of cultivable land was being utilised at present. Basit said that 8.25 million hectares of unused land could be cultivated to produce surplus food in order to cater to the food demands of many countries. He said the health and education sectors also offered myriad opportunities for public-private partnerships due to the country’s 170 million population.
