OTTAWA: High Commissioner for Pakistan to Canada Raza Bashir Tarar has urged the Pakistani diaspora and their representative associations in Canada to synergise their resources and formulate consortiums to launch bigger investment and development initiatives in Pakistan.
“It is heartening to see the Pakistani diaspora in North America come forward and contribute generously to the development of the country of their origin through home remittances and extension of relief and assistance to fellow brothers and sisters in difficult times, but it is high time various associations and their members of Pakistani diaspora thought of investing in bigger, long-term projects in Pakistan, particularly in the agriculture, housing, education and food sectors,” said the High Commissioner.
He was talking to a group of Pakistani investors and investors who met him at the High Commission to share with him various activities and initiatives launched by them in Pakistan, particularly in the water conservation, housing and education sectors. Mubin Ahmad, a Pakistani businessman from Edmonton, Alberta, and Mr. Atta ur Rehman Syed and Mrs. Sadaf Ibrahim, President Canada Pakistan Association, National Capital Region, were also present.
Raza Bashir Tarar suggested that various associations and organisations of Pakistani diaspora in the North America put together a large business delegation consisting of potential investors among the Pakistani community to visit Pakistan and the High Commission could provide them all necessary assistance and set up their meetings with the Board of Investment and other relevant authorities in Pakistan. He also advised them to formulate concrete business proposals and the Mission could act as a catalyst for fruition of those projects.
Meanwhile, on the instructions of the High Commissioner Raza Bashir Tarar, Deputy High Commissioner Pakistan Shahbaz Malik held a detailed meeting with the Canadian Trade Commissioner to Pakistan, Mr Margaux McDonald currently visiting Canada to discuss issues related to bilateral trade.
The Deputy High Commissioner was briefed that a Canadian IT company called ‘Constellation Software’, which is the largest software company in Canada dealing with maintenance of old softwares, had hired around 1000 Pakistani software engineers and programmers, including women, from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
About other projects in the pipeline, the Canadian Trade Commissioner told Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner that a Canadian company named JCM, involved in renewable energy particularly wind energy, had set up a 50MW plant in Jhimpir region of Sindh province, and a similar 50MW project was already in its final stages.
Both the officials also discussed the ongoing talks between the Canadian authorities with the Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB) in Pakistan to forge government-to-government partnership for the construction of high-power transmission lines in Pakistan. The project, if successfully concluded and implemented, would be the first of its kind and it would be financed by multiple investors, including the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), the Canadian government body involved in overseas investments. Both the officials agreed to liaise actively for enhancement of mutual trade and investment.
