The
future is bleak or is it? Recently I read a report in a local paper about how
multinational corporations or companies view Pakistan. As per the article
‘despite several economic challenges Pakistan is currently facing,
multinational companies (MNCs) are considering expanding their business in the
country by bringing handsome investment, transfer of technology and advanced
business practices’. Yes it’s true and many of you reading this might be
pinching yourselves to make sure it is real.
However
here’s the catch (isn’t there always one?) they want the government to come up
with consistent policies and concrete plans before taking any step in this
direction. This was revealed by Ameena Saiyid, President Overseas Investors’
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) to the press.
In
spite of the strife and problems, experts are confident about the importance of
Pakistan in the region as a growing economy of the world with lots of business
opportunities in various sectors.
Which areas are the multinationals really interested in? Five major sectors have been earmarked for investment including ‘corporate farming’, agriculture, infrastructure, skill development, minerals and alternative energy such as coal, hydel, wind and solar energy production. It seems logical to expect investment to be given for farming given the agricultural based nature of our economy and infrastructure is solely lacking. There’s no question that Pakistan is mineral rich but the field of alternative energy seems like a weak bet. People might feel that if this field was so lucrative wouldn’t the government be pursuing it?
Definitely Pakistan is a huge market with a significant population of middle class, of up to 30 million people. To get an idea about how large 30 million is in terms of figures, we need to remember how the UK has a population of around 70 million. More importantly than the middle class, youth under 25 years of age has crossed the 100-million mark in the country. There are more than 70 million TV viewers and 120 million mobile phone users in Pakistan.
Overseas investors and Multinational Corporations are looking forward expanding their business in Pakistan because they have established themselves and obtained experience to work in the local market. The majority of the MNCs in Pakistan are also thankfully reinvesting profits to fuel their expansions. Speaking of expansion and area: in a survey of the Multinational Companies in Pakistan, it was found that as a habit they have offices over 60,000 sq ft in area. To get an idea how large that is a typical bungalow is a good 1,000 sq ft.
Here’s something really interesting I read in that paper’s piece: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is likely to increase if the government improves the perception of the country, which is far worse than it actually seems. That raises an intriguing question, we all know how we accuse the non- Pakistani media (yes it’s come to that) of being biased etc. Yet is the situation really not as bad as it seems?
Which areas are the multinationals really interested in? Five major sectors have been earmarked for investment including ‘corporate farming’, agriculture, infrastructure, skill development, minerals and alternative energy such as coal, hydel, wind and solar energy production. It seems logical to expect investment to be given for farming given the agricultural based nature of our economy and infrastructure is solely lacking. There’s no question that Pakistan is mineral rich but the field of alternative energy seems like a weak bet. People might feel that if this field was so lucrative wouldn’t the government be pursuing it?
Definitely Pakistan is a huge market with a significant population of middle class, of up to 30 million people. To get an idea about how large 30 million is in terms of figures, we need to remember how the UK has a population of around 70 million. More importantly than the middle class, youth under 25 years of age has crossed the 100-million mark in the country. There are more than 70 million TV viewers and 120 million mobile phone users in Pakistan.
Overseas investors and Multinational Corporations are looking forward expanding their business in Pakistan because they have established themselves and obtained experience to work in the local market. The majority of the MNCs in Pakistan are also thankfully reinvesting profits to fuel their expansions. Speaking of expansion and area: in a survey of the Multinational Companies in Pakistan, it was found that as a habit they have offices over 60,000 sq ft in area. To get an idea how large that is a typical bungalow is a good 1,000 sq ft.
Here’s something really interesting I read in that paper’s piece: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is likely to increase if the government improves the perception of the country, which is far worse than it actually seems. That raises an intriguing question, we all know how we accuse the non- Pakistani media (yes it’s come to that) of being biased etc. Yet is the situation really not as bad as it seems?
Coming
back to the article, the writer also described the way forward as outlined by
the OICCI chief. OICCI members will be presenting comprehensive recommendations
along with their business enhancement plans and put it forward to the
government for its support in future. However no mention was made of the
timeframe for these recommendations to be submitted.
“This is high time for the government to cash in on the trends of the global economy and make Pakistan’s environment attractive for foreign investors with curbing the weaknesses in the present system,” stated Ameena Saiyid. The OICCI chief expressed the threat that Pakistan faces – if the foreign firms don’t get the required environment/climate they will change their attention to our well set neighbors (yes India, China even Bangladesh). Once again Pakistan will lose a golden chance to reap the benefits to be had.
Fortunately the present much maligned government has started showing its seriousness and opened the channels of communication with foreign investors. Only time will tell whether these steps are going to have any impact or just be a false flag. The only thing we can be sure of is we can’t afford to miss the few opportunities we get to change the fate of our nation.
“This is high time for the government to cash in on the trends of the global economy and make Pakistan’s environment attractive for foreign investors with curbing the weaknesses in the present system,” stated Ameena Saiyid. The OICCI chief expressed the threat that Pakistan faces – if the foreign firms don’t get the required environment/climate they will change their attention to our well set neighbors (yes India, China even Bangladesh). Once again Pakistan will lose a golden chance to reap the benefits to be had.
Fortunately the present much maligned government has started showing its seriousness and opened the channels of communication with foreign investors. Only time will tell whether these steps are going to have any impact or just be a false flag. The only thing we can be sure of is we can’t afford to miss the few opportunities we get to change the fate of our nation.
