ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is ready to offer land and expertise to Emirati companies willing to invest in its precision agriculture sector, Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Monday.
“The UAE is one of the biggest investor(s) in agriculture. We can offer land and expertise to Dubai companies who want to come to Pakistan and invest in precision agriculture,” the minister said in a Twitter post.
He said that special offers would be available to those Emirati businesses which will help Pakistan develop its agricultural technology sector.
“We can have lucrative business deals for those UAE companies,” Chaudhry tweeted.
The UAE is one of the biggest investor in agriculture. We can offer land and expertise to Dubai companies who want to come to Pakistan and invest in precision agriculture. We can have lucrative business deals for those UAE companies," Chaudhry said. https://t.co/VfgXsY5sX3
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) February 10, 2020
Chaudhry has been seeking more science and hi-tech cooperation with the Arab world, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
In late January, he told Arab News that the Arab world “can benefit immensely from Pakistan’s experience,” giving as examples software development and drone technology, which according to him in Pakistan are as advanced as in Europe.
The minister has called for Saudi and UAE investment in Pakistan’s agritech sector on numerous occasions.
“We want to bring public-private partnership in the manufacturing of batteries, and in precision agriculture ... an approach for farm management with the utilization of information technology,” he told Arab News in September, on the sidelines of the Future Summit in Karachi. Precision agriculture is a farming concept based on site-specific crop management.
“In precision agriculture, we have invited Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (as partners),” Chaudhry said.
In Pakistan, farmers continue to use age-old methods of conventional farming, which has hindered growth in its agricultural sector, coupled with water-shortages and the effects of climate change. As the largest sector of the economy, agriculture contributes 24 percent to the country’s GDP according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
