Interest rate may be cut to 12pc: The News

KARACHI: Board of Investment Chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla has said interest rate may be cut to 12 per cent from 15 per cent after the government reviews the benchmark interest rate in March this year.

Besides that, “the government is bringing an industrial package, including new laws for the gems and stone sector,” he said.

He was speaking to industrialists at a seminar on ‘Public-Private Partnership’, organised by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and its Infrastructure Management Unit (IMU) on Saturday.

He said the BoI was doing its best to include more and more private sector people in the public sector in order to make progress through public-private partnership.

He said the government had also made agreements for purchasing hybrid seed from China to improve per acre yield of crops and produce more food. “Hybrid seed will increase our per acre yield up to three times,” he added.

BoI Sindh Chairman and businessman Zubair Motiwala said the public-private partnership mechanism had always been productive all over the world whether they were developed or underdeveloped countries. He said the BoI would take all measures to exploit all possible areas of development including fish farming, corporate farming and agriculture in general.

A businessman invited the attention of BoI officials to smuggling of stationary and lubricant items from the Chinese border, to which Zubair Motiwala replied that the government should do something to control smuggling. “There are a variety of goods being imported into Pakistan under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA), which never went to Afghanistan and damaged local industries.

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Emirates Group shows interest in investment: The News

ISLAMABAD: A five-member delegation of Emirates Investment Group lead by Raza Jaffar visited Board of Investment (BOI) here on Saturday and expressed great interest in a host of sectors in Pakistan.

The Chairman and Secretary BOI welcomed the delegates and highlighted the needs to address the energy shortage as well as to explore other potential areas of Pakistan especially agro based, horticulture, dairy farming, manufacturing and development of Special Economic Zone, through public or private sector.

The Emirates Investment Group showed great interest for investment in financial services, Islamic banking, agri and livestock, energy sector, real estate development, fruit and vegetable processing ie citrus, mangoes and apples for export & local market, health, hydle power and oil and gas sector.

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