Islamabad, September 20 (INP): Speakers at webinar said that Rashakai , the first special economic zones (SEZs) under CPEC offer lucrative incentives that needed to be tapped for boosting the country’s exports.  

According to Gwadar Pro, the webinar on ‘Branding Pakistan - A Better Place for Investment: Exploring KP’s Investment Opportunities” was organized by KP- Board of Investment and Trade. 

The speakers highlighted that CPEC presents an excellent opportunity to reinforce Pakistan’s economic base and expand regional connectivity.

They were of the view that Rashakai’s signing of developers agreement presents a very good opportunity for KP to start framing policies that can boost investors confidence. They also underlined the need to provide a very strong security environment.

Abdul Karim Khan，Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Industries and Commerce, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pointed out that the recent agreement to develop Rashakai Economic Zone would lead to industrialization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He further mentioned that Rashakai Economic Zone would play a vital role in promoting exports and strengthening import substitution, which would ensure human and economic development. He also hoped the special economic zone would create a business environment for attracting direct foreign investment and transfer of the high-tech industry from China, paving the way for technology relocation.

Hassan Daud, CEO of KP- BoIT moderated the session and gave a brief overview of the priority investment sectors in KP and the priorities and initiatives taken by the government of KP for creating a favorable environment for investors.

Naghmana Hashmi, a former ambassador of Pakistan to China affirmed the work of KP-BoIT and gave advice for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to attract investors and develop tourism. 

She emphasized the importance of proactively engaging with China, “China is a continent, there are different provinces, cities and areas which have been allocated different responsibilities, KP should pay attention to different provinces and their respective development models.”

She also stressed that next year is the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan, a lot of focus and attention will be on Pakistan. Pakistan should fully utilize the next year to focus on China and these different mechanisms in order to attract both investment and tourism from China.

Mustafa Hyder, Executive Director, Pakistan- China Institute said at the occasion that KP has rich culture and heritage which has to be preserved and promoted. KP needs to distinguish itself from other regions. Awareness and preservation of culture is very important and it is tied with investment. He suggested to integrate all the resources into a one-stop shop package.

Lv Yan, DGM of the CRBC said that by the support of Pakistani government,  an agreement for the development of the Rashakai SEZ was signed this Monday at the witness of the PM Imran Khan and Ning Jizhe, Vice Chairman of the China NDRC.  

The Rashakai SEZ is the first SEZ under the CPEC framework in Pakistan. “After signing of the agreement, we are planning to prepare for the start of groundbreaking. The most important issues of this project is marketing, it’s very challenging for us.”

Other speakers of the session were Professor Bari Malik, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts(FRSA), Hassan Khawar, Team Leader DFID’s SEED Project, Charles Schneider, senior private sector specialist, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group. 

INP/JAVED