Govt finalises plan to offer ownership of agri lands to investors

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Sajid Chaudhry
ISLAMABAD: The government has finalised plans to offer ownership of agricultural lands to investors for farming to achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture produce, Federal Minister for Investment, Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan told Daily Times.

“We are extremely enthusiastic in providing areas for farming with great incentives,” he added. Under the plan the investors can own the land, cultivate it and export 100 percent of the produce. “In this regard we are specially targeting investors from the UAE and other Gulf countries, as it would help these countries to have their own food resources,” he informed.

“Pakistan needs more than $40 billion of foreign direct investment and our target is to attract $20 billion by the end of 2009, Khan told.

The agriculture sector is still the largest employer of the workforce and around 70 percent of Pakistan’s population lives in rural areas.

Khan said that leasing and transfer of land would be facilitated by the ministry, which is now working in close association with the law ministry to finalise the modalities. “Once an investor shows his interest, we will have draft agreements ready for him,” he assured.

Pakistan is creating a special task force to protect investment and provide security to potential investors in the country. The task force would be comprised of officials from the ministries of interior, defence, investment and finance, he revealed. “We are aware of the security concerns and that is why we are creating a special task force to protect investors and their investment,” added Waqar Ahmad Khan.

“Pakistan is open to investments in any field,” he added.

The priority areas are oil and gas, energy, food, agriculture, information technology and infrastructure. Due to past experiences, the investors are uncertain regarding the continuation of policies. “The present democratic government has proposed legislation to ensure continuation of projects even if there is a change of government, the minister said. The government has launched a multi pronged strategy to attract investors, which includes: 100 percent repatriation of money; five tax exemption for investors and ten years of tax exemption to those investors who set up a commercial zone; customs duty and general sales tax exemptions on certain items.

Pakistan is also looking for investors who are able to enhance our existing infrastructure requirements. Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world but 70 percent of the milk is auto consumed or wasted and does not reach the market. “We need people to exploit this huge market, which employs around 8 million people in rural areas.” The modernisation of dairy sector can have huge impacts on poverty alleviation, which has risen to an alarming level of 28 percent.

The ministry plans to launch a media campaign to attract investors to Pakistan.

“We will ensure one-window operation and all problems an investor faces will be solved by this ministry,” he said.

Waqar Ahmad Khan concluded with the resolve that “in future no investor will face any problem.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg5_1