Fozia Azam

Pakistan needs to provide substantial incentives to expatriates and ensure consistency in investment-related policies, besides easing its stringent investment conditions to attract more investment, said a senior official. “Pakistani diaspora abroad can play an important role in the country’s economic development as besides sending remittances, they can also help promote foreign direct investment (FDI) and create businesses,” said Ambreen Iftikhar, Additional Secretary of Board of Investment (BOI), while talking to WealthPK.

She said the BOI considers the diaspora community as potential agents of Pakistan’s economic growth. “We need to develop the capacity of our institutions to effectively interact with the diaspora community to build their confidence and bring more investment in Pakistan,” she added. Ambreen emphasised the need to engage overseas Pakistanis, so they can confidently invest besides bringing remittances to the country.

“As being practiced worldwide, Pakistan also needs to engage our diaspora population abroad in investment-related policies and initiatives to make them play their due role in economic growth,” she added. In this regard, the BOI is also working on the ‘Invest Pakistan’ initiative, which will build the confidence of Pakistani diaspora to invest in Pakistan and create more employment opportunities.

“The Pakistani diaspora is an asset, and to maintain economic stability and foster social progress, we are focusing on every possible way to integrate the expat community into our society to every extent possible,” she added. In this regard, the BOI is taking all necessary steps to take expatriates on board and introduce a platform to ensure regular interaction with overseas Pakistanis to involve them in economic activities. She was of the view that diaspora is one of the driving forces of Pakistani economy and identifying their problems and eliminating them needs proper planning and implementation as the hard-earned money sent by them helps strengthen Pakistan’s economy in many ways.

Every year, the Pakistani diaspora sends almost $20 billion worth of remittances to Pakistan, which has a variety of impacts on the country's economy. The United Nations estimates that the Pakistani diaspora community is the seventh largest in the world. Almost 53% of these Pakistani citizens were based in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia alone hosting 2.6 million of them. Approximately one million Pakistanis reside in the United States. Europe, Australia and New Zealand are also home to a large Pakistani diaspora community.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk