ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Monday that the country has received $2 billion in foreign investment since the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) was formed in 2023. 

Pakistan’s government formed the SIFC in June 2023 to attract international investment in key economic sectors such as tourism, livestock, trade, infrastructure, mining and minerals. 

The government decided to form the hybrid civil-military forum after Islamabad narrowly avoided a sovereign default in 2023 before it was saved by a last-gasp bailout program by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

“Since its inception, more than $2 billion in foreign investment has flowed into Pakistan, and our economic indicators are improving,” Chaudhry informed lawmakers during a question hour at the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament. 

Responding to a question by lawmaker Shazia Marri, Chaudhry said the SIFC played a crucial role in removing “bureaucratic hurdles” that previously discouraged international investors. 

Answering a supplementary question from lawmaker Arshad Abdullah, the minister acknowledged that Pakistan’s bureaucratic processes had long deterred global investors. 

“In our system, even setting up a petrol pump requires 21 NOCs (no objection certificates), while in Indonesia, only one NOC is needed to establish an industry,” Chaudhry said. 

He stressed that the SIFC’s goal is to eliminate such inefficiencies. 

“We are moving from manual to automated systems to streamline investment processes,” he shared. 

Since its inception in 2023, the SIFC has also been instrumental in ensuring several trade and investment deals were signed between Pakistan and its regional allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were signed.