LAHORE: The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has welcomed the surge in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which was up by around 74% in the first four months of this fiscal year with Chinese inflows remaining dominant in total FDI.
PIAF chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, in a joint statement along with senior vice chairman Tanveer Ahmed Sufi and vice chairman Kh. Shahzeb Akram, said that a worrying factor is that excluding Chinese inflows the FDI actually reduced from other parts of the world to $308 million during the period. Quoting the State Bank of Pakistan, he said that the country received around $940 million FDI during the July-Oct period of 2017-18.
He said that the inflow from China rose to $632 million constituted over 68 percent of the total FDI during the July-October period. Irfan Iqbal said that Pakistan has been expecting to get huge response from international investors (excluding China) after restoration of peace in the country but the uncertain political situation has made it more difficult to attract foreign investments.
He said that apart from large Chinese investment, almost all country-wise FDI inflows were less than $100 million during the period under review.
The portfolio investment during this period also noted a net outflow of $53 million.
Chairman PIAF appreciated Beijing for investing heavily in power sector as per agreement under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. During the July-October period sector received the highest amount of $422 million, which accounts for 45% of the total FDI. During the same period of FY17 the power sector had received $187.4m.
