Saudi business delegation to arrive in Pakistan Sunday to explore investment opportunities — minister

ISLAMABAD: A high-level Saudi business delegation is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan tomorrow to explore investment opportunities in various economic sectors by holding meetings with private sector organizations, said Federal Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik during a media briefing held in Lahore on Saturday.
The two countries have witnessed a flurry of official visits in recent weeks, with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan traveling to Islamabad earlier in April, before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s two-day visit to the kingdom to attend a World Economic Forum meeting and hold a number of meetings.
“The Saudi Deputy Investment Minister is visiting Pakistan tomorrow,” said Malik, who is also the focal person for Saudi-Pak bilateral collaboration. “He is bringing representatives from 30 to 35 companies whose CEOs are coming here.”
The Pakistani minister maintained his country had always cherished cordial ties with the kingdom, though it had not managed to turn this “relationship of friendship into a relationship of stability and progress.”
He said Pakistan mostly discussed its financial concerns with the Saudi authorities and requested their support. However, the present government wanted to change that by focusing its bilateral conversations on mutually beneficial progress and development, not aid and assistance.
The minister said the two sides discussed a new refinery project during the recent engagements that would be used for export purposes to earn foreign revenue. Additionally, food security was also discussed to further strengthen Pakistan’s agricultural sector.
He informed that Prime Minister Sharif wanted the country’s “private sector to take the lead on this path to progress.”
“That is why Saudi investors have been invited to come here,” he continued. “They will sit with Pakistani companies and figure out ways to connect the Pakistani talent with the capital and investment needed at the international level for the IT revolution.”
Malik said the bilateral collaboration would primarily benefit small businesses, particularly the technology companies established by young students who were likely to get significant amount of investment from Saudi entrepreneurs.
He expressed optimism that chemical, energy and agricultural companies would also gain advantage from the ongoing bilateral collaboration between the two sides.