PESHAWAR, MAY 20(APP): Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT) in partnership with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is pursuing an effective five-year strategy to attract investment and create jobs in the province.
Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while addressing at an event held in this regard said, “our five-year investment promotion strategy focuses on projects that will create jobs in the province. In addition, it will help prepare a strong business case for private and foreign investments in a range of sectors—tourism, minerals, agri processing, and manufacturing.”
KP-BOIT’s new five-year strategy is centered on proactively attracting investments and creating jobs. It also aims to generate reinvestment in the province and linkforeign direct investment, FDI, to the domestic private sector to help kick-start businesses, and minimize losses, lay-offs and divestments to reduce the most immediate short-term implications of COVID-19 and promote new investment to support the recovery effort, says a press release issued here on Thursday.
Billing the province as a land of growing opportunities, the strategy focuses on investment projects to serve both the domestic and export markets that would inject KP’s private sector with world-class know-how, technology and global market connectivity, particularly in manufacturing, logistics and IT enabled services.
He added the provincial government was fully committed to making KP a business-friendly destination.
In the short-term, the strategy has singled out the need to help established investors minimize the impacts of COVID-19. It says supply chain disruptions, corporate illiquidity, sociopolitical strains, and extreme uncertainty due to pandemic will force many companies out of business and pause or cancel plans for many new projects.
Laying out plans to attract new investors, the strategy says competing globally for foreign direct investment when projects begin to flowmore normally again requires work now to build capacity and initiate competitive-enhancing reforms.
As part of IFC’s support to KP-BOIT an Investor Relationship Management System (IRMS) was also launched along with the strategy. The IRMS will strengthen KP-BOIT’s client relationship management by providing a useful IT tool for tracking interactions and following up with existing and new investors.
“ The KP province has more people than many industrialized nations. Given its strategic location, rich minerals resource, growing tourism, and potential in manufacturing and industries, the province can become an investment hub,” said Nadeem A. Siddiqui, IFC Senior Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan. “The new strategy, proactively targeting investors in high-potential sectors, can boost investments in KP, driving competition and a strong growth trajectory.”
The Investment Promotion Strategy 2021-2025 complements the provincial government’s Industrial Policy 2020, Economic Recovery Plan 2020-2023, and Commerce and Trade Strategy 2020, as well as its plan to support elements of federal development plans regarding FDI in the province.
Hassan Daud Butt, CEO KP-BOIT, Abdul Karim Khan, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Industries were also present.
