The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in northwest Pakistan is seeking investment from Chinese companies for 85 projects in areas such as infrastructure and tourism, and it is offering support in tax and industrial policies, its chief minister said on Wednesday.
During the past few days, the province itself has signed 60 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with investors in China, in addition to 25 MOUs signed by local businesses with companies, Pervez Khattak, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said in an interview with the Global Times in Beijing on Wednesday.
Khattak, who is on an official visit in Beijing, said that meetings with Chinese investors were very successful and he saw a great deal of interest from Chinese companies in investing in Pakistan because of abundant opportunities under the Belt and Road Initiative.
"We are open to anybody who is ready to come to investing in Pakistan and the projects I brought are all profitable, very attractive for all investors," said Khattak, adding that the projects include roads, tourism, information technology and other sectors. "I think by the time we leave, we will have MOUs on all the projects."
He said that to attract foreign investment, the government of Pakistan has already implemented favorable industrial policies under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also offering rebates of about 5 percent for the industrial projects.
Such policies and opportunities in the province have helped bring back investors to the region during the past four years, after tough times when "there was no industry … and investors left the province." He said that a "misperception" that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is not safe played a part in keeping investors away but security is not an issue.
"Those who visited know that [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] is as safe as other parts of Pakistan, and we make sure that we [provide] security to [investors]," Khattak said, pointing out that the province has created a force of 4,000 trained police for investors in addition to tens of thousands of Pakistani army personnel assigned to protect the CPEC route.
Going forward, Khattak is expecting more investments from Chinese and other foreign companies into Pakistan and his province under the Belt and Road Initiative, which he called a "game changer" for Pakistan.
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