Foreign investment in Pakistan plummets in 2008/09: Forbes

KARACHI, July 15 (Reuters) - Net foreign investment in Pakistan fell by more than half in the 2008/09 fiscal year that ended on June 30, as investors stayed away from the country amid rising security concerns and a weak global economy.

Net foreign investment fell 51 percent from a year earlier to $2.67 billion, the central bank said.

Out of total foreign investment, foreign direct investment (FDI) fell 31.2 percent to $3.72 billion, data posted on the State Bank of Pakistan's website (www.sbp.prg.pk) showed.

Foreign portfolio investment saw outflows of $1.05 billion, in sharp contrast with inflows of $2.67 billion in the previous fiscal year. That figure also includes outflows of $544.1 million for a maturing eurobond issued by the country earlier.

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P&G to set up $100m plant in Pakistan: business 24-7

By

Shashank Shekhar on Thursday, June 25, 2009

Fast-moving customer goods giant Procter and Gamble (P&G) will set up a $100 million (Dh367m) manufacturing plant in Pakistan by mid-2010, said Al Karim Al Rajwani, the company's Vice-President for Arabian Peninsula and Pakistan, yesterday.

The firm is also looking to set up a manufacturing plant at its Jebel Ali facility.

The Pakistani plant would produce detergents and other laundry products. Al Rajwani said the company has begun handling its operations in Pakistan, Middle East and North Africa from its Jebel Ali based office.

"We are continuously looking for opportunities and we want to use the potential of Jebel Ali," he said.

Besides a P&G office, Jebel Ali has warehouses from where the company re-exports its products. Al Rajwani said the company that has been registering a five to seven per cent growth for the past several years registered a one per cent growth in the first quarter of this year over the last quarter in 2008 as global economic downturn impeded its growth.

The P&G vice-president said the company's expenditure on promotions has remained intact during the crisis and it continues to hire staff. "We had 200 people in our Dubai office the last year. We have about 350 of them now," he said.

The company has focused on introducing a "tier system" of pricing the products to tackle a stubborn customer looking to spend less during the global financial crisis. "We are not crisis-proof but crisis-resistant. There is a two-pronged strategy that we have adopted to sail through the crisis. One is to provide additional value in the same product. The other is to provide cheaper options to the customer," Al Rajwani said.

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47.5 per cent drop in foreign investment in Pakistan: Dawn

KARACHI: Net foreign investment in Pakistan fell 47.5 per cent to $2.22 billion in the first 11 months of the 2008/09 fiscal year compared with $4.23 billion in the same period last year, the State Bank of Pakistan said on Wednesday.

Foreign private investment fell 34.2 per cent to $2.76 billion in the July to May period, compared with $4.20 billion in the corresponding period last year, the State Bank of Pakistan said on its website. Out of total foreign investment, foreign direct investment was down 19.8 per cent to $3.32 billion, compared with $4.15 billion the previous year.

Rated deep in junk bond territory, Pakistan was saved from a balance of payments crisis and default by a $7.6 billion emergency loan package from the International Monetary Fund last November.

Its economy is also in virtual recession with gross domestic product growth for the 2008/09 fiscal year expected at 2 per cent, compared with 4.1 per cent last year.

There are also security concerns for investors as Pakistan battles a Taliban insurgency in its northwest.

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Pakistan to Cross Investment Target, Minister Says: Bloomberg

By Camilla Hall

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan will exceed its $10 billion target for overseas direct investment by September, the nation’s investment minister said.

“The majority of that is going to come from the Gulf,” Waqar Ahmed Khan said at a news conference in Dubai today, without giving details. “Investment is secure and the law of the land is sovereign.”

Pakistan needs overseas investment to bolster an economy predicted to grow at the slowest pace in eight years. Growth and investment have slumped as Pakistan contends with Taliban militants on its western border and strained relations with India in the east.

South Asia’s second-biggest economy will raise as much as $2 billion in investment from the United Arab Emirates in the housing sector, Khan said. Pakistan needs eight million “affordable homes,” he said.

Pakistan planned to raise $10 billion in overseas investment by December as companies from the Middle East build power plants and pour money into fuel exploration, Khan said in an interview in January.

Overseas direct investment in the nine months ended March 30 declined 8 percent to $3.04 billion, according to central bank data.

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Foreign investment in Pakistan down 36 pct July-March: Reuters

KARACHI, April 15 (Reuters) - Net foreign investment in Pakistan fell 35.9 percent to $2.08 billion in the first nine months of the 2008/09 fiscal year compared with $3.25 billion in the same period last year, the central bank said on Wednesday.

Foreign private investment fell 19.5 percent to $2.62 billion in the July to March period, compared with $3.26 billion the previous year, the State Bank of Pakistan said.

Out of total foreign investment, foreign direct investment was down 8 percent to $3.04 billion, compared with $3.31 billion in the year-earlier period.

There was an outflow of $957.5 million from July to March this year compared with an outflow of $53.1 million in the same period last year.

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Malaysia emerges as biggest FDI investor in Pakistan: APP

ISLAMABAD, Dec 31 (APP): Malaysia tops the list of investors making Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan during first six month of year 2008, according to data released by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Direct Investment during the first five months of current financial year reached US$ 1.8 billion registering an increase of 1.5 percent, export reached to US$ 8.2 billion with a growth of 20 percent and foreign remittance at 2.9 billion registered an impressive increase of 15pc. 

The May Bank made the biggest investment of US$ 907 million in banking sector followed by Saudi Arabia with an investment of US$ 750 million in steel sector and UAE with an investment of US$ 500 million in power sector.

The global economic meltdown has not deterred the foreign investors including Malaysia to invest in Pakistan, as the Pakistan’s economy showed extreme resilience and defied the economic recession with registering growth in FDIs, Export and Foreign Remittance.

According to the data, another ASEAN member country Singapore has made an investment of US$ 147 million in banking sector and US$ 30 million in power sector and as such trails far beyond Malaysia.

Other countries who are flocking Pakistan for FDI in banking sector are Switzerland with an investment of US$ 200 million, United Kingdom US$ 125 and Saudi Arabia US$ 200 million.

The countries making investment in Hypermarkets in Pakistan are Germany with an investment of US$ 100, Holland with an investment of US$ 100 million and France with an investment of US$ 40 million, whereas countries making investment in power sector are UAE with an investment of US$ 500 million, OPEC with an investment of US$ 30 million and  Turkey with an investment of US$ 130 million.

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China Mobile to further invest $ 800 mln in Pakistan: APP

BEIJING, June 19 (APP):China Mobile, the world largest telecommunication organization will make further investment amounting to $ 800 million in Pakistan. This was stated by President of China Mobile Wang Gian Zhuo during a meeting with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir here on Thursday.

China Mobile has already made an investment of $ 800 million in Pakistan.

Wang said that besides making further $ 800 million investment, he would also pursue many internationally acclaimed telecommunication organizations like Sony-Erricson to take part in the development of telecommunication in Pakistan.

He said the Pakistan has great deal of opportunities for Foreign Investors as it offers equal level playing fields for both foreign and domestic investors.

The President of China Mobile said that he had recently held very fruitful meeting with the Pakistani leadership and was impressed about the incentive Pakistan is offering for the Foreign Investors, particularly for Chinese Investors.

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Stopping the rot: Economist

Just like the bad old days

BRIGHTLY painted Tata lorries, laden with sacks of onions, wait in the noon heat at the Wagah border post between India and Pakistan. Once past customs, the onions will go on to Lahore and beyond. But the lorries must turn back. Their produce is laboriously loaded onto smaller vans, driven by locals.

Pakistan's costly imports of food ($3.5 billion in the first ten months of this fiscal year, which ends on June 30th), fertiliser ($823m) and fuel (over $8.6 billion) may pull the economic rug from under its newly installed government, which presented its first budget, belatedly, on June 11th. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the central bank, reckons the country's current-account deficit might reach 7.8% of GDP this fiscal year, its highest ever (see chart). Growth has slowed to 5.8%, inflation has quickened to over 19% and the government's budget deficit, at about 7% of GDP, is the highest in ten years.

Such macroeconomic disarray will be familiar to the coalition government led by the Pakistan People's Party of Asif Zardari, and to Nawaz Sharif, whose party provides it "outside support". Before Mr Sharif was ousted in 1999, the two parties had presided over a decade of corruption and mismanagement. But since then, as the IMF remarked in a report in January, there has been a transformation. Pakistan attracted over $5 billion in foreign direct investment in the 2006-07 fiscal year, ten times the figure of 2000-01. The government's debt fell from 68% of GDP in 2003-04 to less than 55% in 2006-07, and its foreign-exchange reserves reached $16.4 billion as recently as in October.

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Warid Telecom Pakistan plans $5 Billion Dollars investment to improve services: Daily.pk

The tele-density in Pakistan is said to be more than 50 per cent but it is actually around 40 per cent, Warid Telecom International Group Chief Technical Officer Marwan Zawaydeh said in an interview.

Tele-density is calculated on the basis of sales data that can be misleading as active connections are much less than the sales' figure, Marwan said.

He said there is room for further growth in the telecom industry and it could further contribute to the GDP of the country. "Though Warid and Telenor entered the market almost together, it is true that our competitor has acquired more market share because Telenor captured the market in under-served rural areas whereas we focused more on urban centres. We were left behind in market share but not in quality of service."

He said Warid has recently re-launched itself and has come up with value-added services. Its focus is on untapped areas.

This month, Warid will launch Blackberry and in the near future many more services are likely to come. The company plans to invest $1 billion in the next three years.

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