Tunisia intends to invest in textile, IT, S&T, Food processing
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—Tunisia is keen to have joint ventures with Pakistan in textiles, information technology, science and technology and food processing sectors.
Tunisian Minister for Industry, Energy, Small & Medium Enterprises Afif Chelbi stated this during a meeting with Federal Minister for Privatization & Investment Muhammad Wasi Zafar here Monday.
Wasi Zafar stressed the need for exchange of business and trade delegations to further promote the existing economic bonds and to benefit from each other’s experience in the related areas and the available investment opportunities.
Pakistan was surplus in production of variety of fruits and offers opportunities in food processing, information technology, telecommunications, power, textiles, oil & gas exploration, real estate, tourism, and banking, he said. Giving an overview of Pakistan’s economy and the salient features of the investment & privatization policies and achievements as a result of the economic reforms introduced by the government, Wasi Zafar said that three pillars of Pakistan’s economy deregulation, liberalization and privatization have yielded encouraging results. he continuity and consistency of policies was the hallmark of the government, he said adding, the privatization of public sectors entities has confined the government’s role to policy-making, good governance and has fostered competition and increased efficiency and revenues.
Exciting investment opportunities in an investment friendly environment along with level playing field for both local and foreign investors, effective regulatory framework with liberal policies have made Pakistan an attractive destination for investment, which has also given boost to the investors confidence, he added.
He informed that liberal investment policy included 100 % foreign equity in all economic sectors, with attractive incentives like remittances of capital, profits, royalty, technical and franchise fees without obtaining permission from the government.
The foreign investment was fully protected under Foreign PrivateInvestment (Promotion & Protection) Act 1976 and Protection of EconomicReforms Act 1992, he said.
Giving details of the achievements Wasi Zafar said that Pakistan’sinvestment friendly policies have yielded record results as witnessed during the fiscal year 2006-07 by setting new record of Foreign Investment to US $ 8.4 billion, which was 5.8 % of GDP, which has been on the level of 7 % for the last five years.
Pakistan has comprehensive and broad based Privatization Program, which provided attractive opportunities and PC Ordinance 2000 has given statuary cover to entire process, he added.
The Minister further informed that Pakistan has so far privatized 166 public sector units raising US $ 7 billion since 1991 while 87 % of the privatization was completed during the recent 7 years realizing around US $ 6.1 billion through the privatization of 61 transactions.