Foreign Investors Invest Rs. 16 Billion in Pakistan on CSR Projects

Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI) members invested Rs. 16 billion in different Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities and containment of the negative impact of the coronavirus.

In addition to monetary contributions, the CSR activities of OICCI members included the investment of their employees’ time in different value-adding social activities across Pakistan, with the underlying commitment to uplift the underprivileged strata of the society and support them during this challenging time brought about by the pandemic.

About 100 of the leading foreign investors, members of the OICCI, actively participated in support of the GOP’s effort to fight the pandemic of COVID-19, without stepping back from their continuing commitment to CSR activities that benefit the marginalized communities across the country.

Haroon Rashid, President OICCI, praised the OICCI member, saying,

OICCI members who have been leading the contribution towards CSR initiatives and are recognized as a role model to motivate other businesses and affluent individuals.


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He said, “Over the last few years, there has been a noticeable enhancement in the sustainability and CSR initiatives by the OICCI members through a proactive engagement between business and all stakeholders in society. OICCI members have adopted the best CSR and Sustainability practices, largely in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to meet the growing needs of the society.”

The annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report 2019-2020 brings out the essence of the CSR activities of about half of OICCI members, who during 2019-20, collectively, invested about Rs. 8 billion on CSR related activities, excluding those on COVID-19 mentioned above, and reached out to around 62 million direct beneficiaries throughout Pakistan. OICCI members and their employees spent around 1.5 million man-hours and partnered with 160 social and development sector organizations in fulfilling their unique CSR programs.

The reach of the CSR activities touched all provinces. The geographic distribution was 29 percent in Sindh, 26 percent in Punjab, 14 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 12 percent in Baluchistan, 6 percent in FATA, and 8 percent each, in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.

In terms of specific UN SDGs, 79 percent of the OICCI members focused on ‘Health and Well-Being’ and ‘Quality Education’, especially new primary and secondary school facilities and vocational training programs for skills development.

Many of the members also actively supported health and nutrition-related initiatives through donations to reputable hospitals, medical care camps, and health awareness campaigns.

OICCI, in a statement, highlighted that the March 2020 pandemic challenge to OICCI members and their stakeholders was enormous and is continuing.


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However, due to the international outreach of OICCI members, they led from the front and shared the best practices for protecting the health and wellbeing of their employees, business partners, and other stakeholders. None of the OICCI members laid off their workers due to the slow down in the business activity at the outbreak of the pandemic.

Most of the OICCI members positively responded to the Government of Pakistan’s call for support in containing the spread of the pandemic, protecting the health and supporting economic needs of the underprivileged populace in the face of COVID-19, and contributed about Rs. 7.8 billion to various pandemic focused containment causes.

It is pertinent to mention that 63 percent of the members were focused on Gender Equality, in support of the ‘OICCI Women’ initiative, which is gaining momentum since its launch in 2017. “We believe the OICCI Women initiative could become a motivating factor for other businesses in Pakistan to raise the level of women participation, thereby contributing towards a rapid economic growth of the country,” said OICCI Secretary-General, M. Abdul Aleem.

OICCI Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report 2019-2020 released yesterday gives details of the contributions of the member companies, working across the country, in several diverse social sectors.

OICCI is the collective body of top 200 foreign investors in Pakistan, belonging to 35 countries, who are also the largest contributor to the economy of Pakistan besides being the largest foreign investors.



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