ID :
28829
Thu, 11/06/2008 - 22:49
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/28829
The shortlink copeid
NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO INVEST IN PAKISTAN
From Ahmad Fuad Yahya
LAHORE, Nov 6 (Bernama) -- With a long history of a free economy and the current stable political situation in Pakistan, the current climate is very much conducive for foreign companies to come and invest in the country.
In making this call, the governor of Punjab Salman Taseer also urged
foreign
investors to come and observe for themselves the situation in Pakistan.
"Come to Pakistan and see for yourself, there is no problem here. No
foreign investors have lost money in Pakistan."
The situation is normal and the time now is the best for them to come and
invest, he said.
"There are companies that have been here for many years, some even 50
years. The multinational corporations, they have made a lot of money. So many
foreign banks have been here for many years and they have done very well," he
told Malaysian journalists on a working visit here.
Taseer said Pakistan had a totally free economy and very liberal
investment laws to the extent that one could bring in US$100 million and buy a
company and sell it the very next day and bring out the money.
"There is no restriction on foreign investment. Today with the economic
depression, you get fantastic buys, you never get these prices anywhere in the
world as you are getting a bargain both in currency and assets, as if a
big sale is going on in Pakistan, buy at one third of the price.
"Everything is cheap, companies are cheap, equities market is cheap," he
said.
The governor said the price of a dollor to a Pakistan rupee four days ago
was 84, and now it was around 81.
He was also confident that the rupee would get stronger in a month or two
to about 70 to the US dollar as currently the rupee-dollar exchange rate
included about 14 "panic bubble rupees".
The realistic price would be about 70 to 71 rupees to a dollar, he
said.
He said the panic bubbles were caused by the gloomy pictures that have been
painted about the country, causing housewives to convert their rupees into
dollars and keeping them under their mattress.
"Once the situation stabilises, then the cost of holding dollars under
their
mattress will become very expensive and they will be panicking the other way and
converting them into rupees. You will see that in the next month or two there
will be a huge drop in the price of a dollar to a rupee."
Taseer said the pictures painted by the international media has also
provided for a ridiculous perception of Pakistan as if the country was
perpetually in some kind of turmoil, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up
when the incidences were very few and isolated.
There are more people dying because of road accidents, electrical
accidents,
and train accidents, he said.
When a lorry goes off the road and gets 20 people killed, or 30 people die
in a road accident, these do not get reported in the international media, but if
one bomber blows himself up and five people are killed it would be shown and
repeated in the international media, he said.
"There is no reason for people to think of Pakistan as some kind of an
Islamic fundamentalist state.
"The Parliament has been elected, there are liberal people in the
Parliament. We have thousands and thousands of women doctors, teachers,
professors, scientists, pilots," he said.
LAHORE, Nov 6 (Bernama) -- With a long history of a free economy and the current stable political situation in Pakistan, the current climate is very much conducive for foreign companies to come and invest in the country.
In making this call, the governor of Punjab Salman Taseer also urged
foreign
investors to come and observe for themselves the situation in Pakistan.
"Come to Pakistan and see for yourself, there is no problem here. No
foreign investors have lost money in Pakistan."
The situation is normal and the time now is the best for them to come and
invest, he said.
"There are companies that have been here for many years, some even 50
years. The multinational corporations, they have made a lot of money. So many
foreign banks have been here for many years and they have done very well," he
told Malaysian journalists on a working visit here.
Taseer said Pakistan had a totally free economy and very liberal
investment laws to the extent that one could bring in US$100 million and buy a
company and sell it the very next day and bring out the money.
"There is no restriction on foreign investment. Today with the economic
depression, you get fantastic buys, you never get these prices anywhere in the
world as you are getting a bargain both in currency and assets, as if a
big sale is going on in Pakistan, buy at one third of the price.
"Everything is cheap, companies are cheap, equities market is cheap," he
said.
The governor said the price of a dollor to a Pakistan rupee four days ago
was 84, and now it was around 81.
He was also confident that the rupee would get stronger in a month or two
to about 70 to the US dollar as currently the rupee-dollar exchange rate
included about 14 "panic bubble rupees".
The realistic price would be about 70 to 71 rupees to a dollar, he
said.
He said the panic bubbles were caused by the gloomy pictures that have been
painted about the country, causing housewives to convert their rupees into
dollars and keeping them under their mattress.
"Once the situation stabilises, then the cost of holding dollars under
their
mattress will become very expensive and they will be panicking the other way and
converting them into rupees. You will see that in the next month or two there
will be a huge drop in the price of a dollar to a rupee."
Taseer said the pictures painted by the international media has also
provided for a ridiculous perception of Pakistan as if the country was
perpetually in some kind of turmoil, with suicide bombers blowing themselves up
when the incidences were very few and isolated.
There are more people dying because of road accidents, electrical
accidents,
and train accidents, he said.
When a lorry goes off the road and gets 20 people killed, or 30 people die
in a road accident, these do not get reported in the international media, but if
one bomber blows himself up and five people are killed it would be shown and
repeated in the international media, he said.
"There is no reason for people to think of Pakistan as some kind of an
Islamic fundamentalist state.
"The Parliament has been elected, there are liberal people in the
Parliament. We have thousands and thousands of women doctors, teachers,
professors, scientists, pilots," he said.
