March 1, 2019: Ambassador of Germany to Pakistan Martin Kobler has proposed that Pak-German Joint Chamber of Commerce and Investment should be created for further promotion of bilateral trade and investment.
He said that Germany was Pakistan's biggest trading partner in European Union with trade balance in favor of Pakistan.
He was addressing a workshop titled “Doing Business in Pakistan” organized by German-Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce (AHK) in Dubai, which was attended by 35 major German companies based in UAE including Audi, Volkswagen, BMW Group, Halfen, Hugo Boss, Lufthansa, PUMA, Rohde & Schwarz, Deutsche Bank and Siemens.
Chief Executive Officer of AHK Felix Neugart gave a brief insight into the recent developments in Pakistan, especially with reference to tremendous investment and business opportunities in Pakistan being the 6th largest country in the world, having more than 50 percent youth bulge, abundantly blessed natural resources, sound manufacturing base and well developed agriculture and services sector.
He appreciated the steps taken by the new government for restoring businessmen confidence in Pakistan and the improved law and order situation in the country.
Chairman BOI appreciated the efforts of AHK and German businessmen in promoting business and investment in Pakistan and updated the participants about various initiatives taken by the present government to improve investment and businesses in Pakistan.
He informed that massive changes have been introduced in the Visa regime and government is planning to launch e-VISA facility for a limited number of countries in the coming month. Besides, this government is making efforts to improve taxation system, cutting down bureaucratic hurdles in setting up businesses, evolve mechanism for early resolution of commercial and investment disputes and a country specific one window operation for facilitating businesses and investors. He encouraged German companies to invest in Pakistan especially in Alternate Energy, Agro based Food Processing, Hospitality & Tourism and Emerging Technologies.
Haroon informed that there are 7 special economic zones already operational in Pakistan and 9 economic zones are in pipeline to attract investment in industrial sector in Pakistan.
He quoted Prime Minister's resolve to make Pakistan an investor friendly destination where people can make money and urged German investors to take maximum advantage out of this opportunity.
This was followed by a panel discussion where most of the queries raised by the German businessmen were related to repatriation of profits, travel advisory and investor facilitation etc. Ambassador Kobler, representative of Siemens and Deutsche Bank informed the participants that the law and order situation has considerably improved and international tourists as well as businessmen have started coming to Pakistan. Chairman promised to further ease the profit repatriation process to facilitate the businesses.
On the sidelines of the conference, Chairman BOI also met with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World to discuss the investment opportunities in Pakistan. CEO DP World showed keen interest to invest in development of ports and free zones in Pakistan.
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