ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government and leading business conglomerates have pitched around 40 investment projects worth more than $28 billion to a visiting Saudi trade delegation, according to documents seen by Arab News, as the South Asian nation seeks to attract foreign capital to narrow its deficits and stabilize its fragile economy.
The “opportunities pipeline” was presented on Wednesday to a 16-member Saudi delegation led by Prince Mansour bin Mohammed Al Saud during a meeting of the Saudi–Pakistan Joint Business Council in Islamabad. The delegation, which arrived late Tuesday, held a series of meetings with federal ministers and received detailed presentations from the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and at least 29 private companies.
In a presentation titled “Opportunities Pipeline,” officials from the commerce ministry and SIFC outlined multiple projects for Saudi investors spanning key sectors including energy, mines and minerals, IT and telecom, agriculture and livestock, connectivity, tourism, industry, and privatization.
“Pakistani companies pitched about 40 projects to these Saudi companies and now they are in discussions on how to choose and which project to choose,” said Jamil Ahmed Qureshi, secretary at the SIFC, a hybrid civil-military body established to fast-track foreign investment, in an interview with Arab News.
