‘Pakistan needs to attract more investments for higher economic growth’

For example, he said, Pakistan should attract American and European companies to invest in infrastructure projects, value added agricultural products, health and hospitality industry and offer them incentives and favorable investment conditions.“This will send a signal to major Western economies that Pakistan is a place for future growth and enhance their confidence in doing business in Pakistan, which has a large market,” said the business leader, who also co-founded Pakistan Caucus on the Capitol Hill in 2004. Chughtai cited examples of other regional economies, pointing out that the investment-to-GDP ratio in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia and India has been continuously higher than in Pakistan during the past decade.“If the cost and ease of doing business is favorable, more investors will like to do business. That means more jobs and facilities and more purchasing power with people.””But what we have seen in Pakistan has been persistent macroeconomic instability. That has discouraged savings and private investment in Pakistan.”

He praised Prime Minister Imran Khan’s efforts to woo foreign investment and said if Islamabad is able to overcome the issues of unsustainable current account and budget deficits, it will be in a much better position to compete for international investment.It’s appreciable that the government has taken steps to ramp up output through industry specific measures like zero regulatory duties on the five zero-rated industries, lower electricity tariffs and equalization of gas tariffs throughout the country, he said.