ISLAMABAD: A two-day Pakistan-Saudi investment conference is scheduled to begin in Islamabad today, Monday, a day after a high-powered business delegation arrived in Pakistan from Riyadh to discuss trade and investment.
The 50-member Saudi delegation was headed by Ibrahim Al Mubarak, Assistant Undersecretary for Investment, and comprised approximately 30 Saudi companies in the fields of information technology, communications, energy, aviation, construction, mining exploration, agriculture, and human resources development. There is.
“[Pakistani commerce] “The ministry has selected a number of Pakistani companies in various sectors and its officials are looking forward to holding business-to-business meetings with their Saudi counterparts and hopefully sealing business and investment deals,” Pakistan news agency APP reported. .
“Pakistan welcomes and fully facilitates investments and partnerships from Saudi Arabia in the IT, minerals, textiles, food security, engineering and energy sectors.”
In the first half of this fiscal year, bilateral trade between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was recorded at $2.482 billion, with Pakistan’s exports at $262.58 million and Saudi exports at $2.219 billion.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have worked closely together in recent weeks to expand bilateral trade and investment agreements, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reaffirming Saudi commitment to advance the $5 billion investment plan. did.
The business delegation’s visit follows Prime Minister Sharif’s visit to Riyadh from April 27 to 30 to attend a two-day special meeting of the World Economic Forum.
On the sidelines of the WEF meeting, the Pakistani Prime Minister met with the Crown Prince and the Saudi Ministers of Finance, Industry, Investment, Energy, Climate, Economy and Planning, and Saudi-Pakistani advisors to discuss bilateral investments and economic partnership. Supreme Coordination Council and the Governors of the Saudi Central Bank and the Islamic Development Bank.
It was the second meeting between Sharif and the crown prince in the past month. They met before that when they traveled to Saudi Arabia from April 6th to 8th. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister also visited Pakistan last month, during which Pakistan pitched at least $20 billion worth of projects to Riyadh.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have strong trade, defense and cultural ties. Saudi Arabia is home to more than 2.7 million Pakistani expatriates and is the biggest source of remittances to the cash-strapped South Asian country.
Saudi Arabia has been a frequent donor to Pakistan, regularly providing oil in arrears and direct financial assistance to help stabilize the economy and build up foreign exchange reserves.
Currently, Pakistan is in dire need of increasing its foreign exchange reserves and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new bailout agreement, but this will require the foreign funds that have been requested so far to be We need to send a signal that we can continue to meet procurement requirements. This has been a major demand in previous loan packages.
Last year, Pakistan established the Special Investment Facilitation Council, a body comprised of Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders with a specific mandate to promote investment in Pakistan. The council has so far focused on investments in energy, agriculture, mining, information technology and aviation, with a particular focus on Gulf countries.
