ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Kuwait signed agreements on industrial cooperation and engineering on Thursday, Pakistan’s privatization ministry said, as both countries vowed to enhance bilateral economic ties for their mutual benefit.
The agreements were signed as Pakistan’s Minister of Communications, Investment Board and Privatization Abdul Aleem Khan led a delegation of officials to Kuwait for the fifth joint ministerial commission meeting between the two countries.
Pakistan has increasingly sought to attract foreign investment, particularly from Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait as it struggles with a macroeconomic crisis that has depleted its reserves and caused inflation to surge.
“Pakistan and Kuwait signed agreements in the fields of industrial cooperation and engineering,” a statement from the privatization ministry said.
“Federal Minister for Investment Abdul Aleem Khan and Kuwait’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Omar Saud Al-Omar signed the agreements.”
Khan said during the meeting that Pakistan would appoint a commercial consular in Kuwait to promote its business activities in the Gulf country. He added Pakistan would promote bilateral cooperation in pharmaceuticals, engineering and automotive sectors with Kuwait.
He said Pakistan aims to invest more in the food, textile and energy sectors with Kuwait. The Pakistani minister hoped for relaxation in visa restrictions from Kuwait.
“We will soon start visa on arrival for GCC countries,” Khan said. “We will provide Kuwait with a Pakistani workforce of veterinary staff, doctors, nurses and from other important sectors.”
During Kakar’s Nov. 2023 visit to Kuwait, various memoranda of understanding aimed at boosting cooperation in the fields of manpower, information technology, mineral exploration, food security, energy and defense were signed between the two countries.
His visit to the country came a few months after Pakistan established the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military hybrid body designed to oversee foreign financing with a specific focus on the Gulf region in key economic sectors.
