ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that friendly countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have pledged to invest $27 billion in Pakistan in the next five years, Pakistani state media reported on Sunday, amid a push for foreign investment in the South Asian country.
The development comes amid Islamabad’s efforts to attract foreign investment to drive economic growth in Pakistan that has been engulfed in an economic crisis due to decades of financial mismanagement.
In recent months, the South Asian country has reached multiple investment deals with a number of countries, mainly the Gulf states, in infrastructure, energy, maritime, ports and other sectors.
Iqbal said his government was making efforts to bring socio-economic reforms to put the country on the path of fast-track economic development, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Saudi Arabia has announced to invest five billion dollars, while the UAE and Kuwait will each invest ten billion dollars and Azerbaijan will invest two billion dollars,” he was quoted as saying.
China has also shown willingness for the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative through which it has pledged over $60 billion in investment projects in Pakistan, according to Iqbal.
Beijing has given assurances for the establishment of five new corridors, including that of growth, livelihood, innovation, green economy and open regional inclusive development.
Since avoiding a default last year, Pakistan has been making attempts to boost investment and trade to revive its fragile economy, and reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July for a new $7 billion loan.
The IMF executive board is due to meet on September 25 to discuss the bailout, with Pakistani officials saying that all matters with the lender have been “settled amicably.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said this week that friendly countries had played a major role in helping meet requirements placed before Islamabad by the IMF, which included arranging additional external financing and debt rollovers.
Islamabad has for years relied on China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE for assistance to meet such external financing requirements.
Saudi Arabia, other friendly states to invest $27 billion in Pakistan in five years — minister
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Saudi Arabia, other friendly states to invest $27 billion in Pakistan in five years — minister
- The development comes amid Islamabad’s efforts to attract foreign investment to drive economic growth, development
- In recent months, Pakistan has reached investment deals mainly with Gulf states in maritime, energy and other sectors
Pakistani students stuck in Afghanistan permitted to go home
- The border between the countries has been shut since Oct. 12
- Worries remain for students about return after the winter break
JALALABAD: After three months, some Pakistani university students who were stuck in Afghanistan due to deadly clashes between the neighboring countries were “permitted to go back home,” Afghan border police said Monday.
“The students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (northwest Pakistan) who were stuck on this side of the border, only they were permitted to cross and go to their homes,” said Abdullah Farooqi, Afghan border police spokesman.
The border has “not reopened” for other people, he said.
The land border has been shut since October 12, leaving many people with no affordable option of making it home.
“I am happy with the steps the Afghan government has taken to open the road for us, so that my friends and I will be able to return to our homes” during the winter break, Anees Afridi, a Pakistani medical student in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, told AFP.
However, worries remain for the hundreds of students about returning to Afghanistan after the break ends.
“If the road is still closed from that side (Pakistan), we will be forced to return to Afghanistan for our studies by air.”
Flights are prohibitively expensive for most, and smuggling routes also come at great risk.
Anees hopes that by the time they return for their studies “the road will be open on both sides through talks between the two governments.”
