ISLAMABAD: Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Haroon Sharif met Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) of Ministry of Commerce of China Director General Liu Dianxun on Friday in Beijing.
Haroon Sharif discussed revival of a memorandum of understanding with CIPA and both sides agreed to revive the cooperation in order to ensure investment promotion in prioritized sectors such as information technology, textiles and agro-based products.
He further said, “We at the BoI encourage our Chinese friends to invest in Pakistan. In addition to the existing notified seven special economic zones (SEZs), Pakistan is planning to develop new SEZs under CPEC.”
“Development of Rashakai SEZ is a milestone and a first step towards implementation of industrial cooperation under CPEC. Industrial cooperation was prioritised by the incumbent government with a goal to start implementation of SEZs this year,” the chairman said.
He said that the BoI has received concrete investment proposals from local and foreign investors who are interested to invest in Pakistan’s priority sectors having immense potential for investment, agro-based food and industry, value added textile, tourism and hospitality, IT sector, light engineering and logistics.
BoI chairman informed that Pakistan has initiated a reform process to facilitate foreign investment in the country. The BoI team aims to include Pakistan in the list of top 100 economies in ease of doing business (EoDB) by 2020, he added.
He further said that the board has established a dedicated unit with the aim of facilitating investors in materializing their projects in Pakistan in a transparent, timely and efficient manner.
Haroon Sharif is visiting China, accompanying Prime Minister Imran Khan to participate in the 2nd Belt and Road Forum, being held in Beijing, China.
