A quick response COVID-19 task force to help save as many existing foreign direct investment projects as possible in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province is one of the key elements of a new investment promotion strategy, launched by the KP Board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT) in partnership with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group.
KP-BOIT’s new five-year strategy is centered on proactively attracting investments and creating jobs. It also aims to generate reinvestment in the province and link foreign direct investment, FDI, to the domestic private sector to help kick-start businesses and minimize losses, lay-offs, and divestments to reduce the most immediate short-term implications of COVID-19, and promote new investment to support the recovery effort.
Billing the province as a land of growing opportunities, the strategy focuses on investment projects to serve both the domestic and export markets that would inject KP’s private sector with world-class know-how, technology, and global market connectivity, particularly in manufacturing, logistics and IT-enabled services.
Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Taimur Khan Jhagra, said, “Our five-year investment promotion strategy focuses on projects that will create jobs in the province. In addition, it will help prepare a strong business case for private and foreign investments in a range of sectors—tourism, minerals, agri processing, and manufacturing.”
He added, “The provincial government is fully committed to making KP a business-friendly destination.”
In the short term, the strategy has singled out the need to help established investors minimize the impacts of COVID-19.
It says supply chain disruptions, corporate illiquidity, sociopolitical strains, and extreme uncertainty due to the pandemic will force many companies out of business and pause or cancel plans for many new projects.
Laying out plans to attract new investors, the strategy states to compete globally for foreign direct investment when projects begin to flow more normally again requires work now to build capacity and initiate competitive-enhancing reforms.
As part of IFC’s support to KP-BOIT an Investor Relationship Management System (IRMS) was also launched along with the strategy. The IRMS will strengthen KP-BOIT’s client relationship management by providing a useful IT tool for tracking interactions and following up with existing and new investors.
“With a population of over 36 million, KP province has more people than many industrialized nations. Given its strategic location, rich minerals resource, growing tourism, and potential in manufacturing and industries, the province can become an investment hub,” said Nadeem A. Siddiqui, IFC Senior Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The new strategy, proactively targeting investors in high-potential sectors, can boost investments in KP, driving competition and a strong growth trajectory,” he added.
The Investment Promotion Strategy 2021-2025 complements the provincial government’s Industrial Policy 2020, Economic Recovery Plan 2020-2023, and Commerce and Trade Strategy 2020, as well as its plan to support elements of federal development plans regarding FDI in the province.
CEO KP-BOIT, Hassan Daud Butt, hosted the event. Abdul Karim Khan, Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Industries, was also present.
