Investors’ roundtable on power sector from 28th

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf has left for the United States to participate in a two-day “Investors’ Roundtable on Pakistan’s Power Sector” being held in Washington DC from July 28.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, in association with the government of Pakistan, is organising it in the World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, said a press release here Friday.

A high-level government delegation, led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and comprising Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Salman Faruqui, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, and Ismail Qureshi, Secretary Ministry of Water and Power, would participate in the conference. In addition, small groups of investors, currently active in Pakistan and in the region, as well as international and bilateral financial institutions have been invited to the conference.

The roundtable is to achieve a shared understanding between the investment/financial community and the government.

Pakistan would share its plans, strategies and policies for an accelerated development of its power sector, power sector potential in the indigenous resources like coal, hydro generation and renewable energy, which is turn are aimed at overcoming the current electricity deficit and laying the foundation for sustained economic growth.

Pakistan is seeking the views of investors and financiers to speed up the decision making processes, address the risks and also enable long term involvement of the investment community in the country’s power sector in particular.

The government would also like to facilitate and promote specific project opportunities that are being offered to the private sector.

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