Ambassador Masood Khan Introduces Special Investment Facilitation Council to US Investors
By Elaine Pasquini
Chicago: During a three-day visit to Chicago, amid other meetings, Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, gave the keynote address at the OPEN Chicago conference on October 14, 2023, in which he introduced Pakistan’s Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) to US investors and others attending the event.
The “Future of Everything Summit” was hosted by the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) Chicago, a not-for-profit association dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship and professional excellence within diaspora communities in Chicago and the Midwest. Its membership includes professionals, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, scientists, social leaders, academics, and students.
The day-long summit aimed to explore how emerging technologies, social and economic trends and environmental challenges transform industries and create new opportunities.
“Pakistan’s Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) will act as a single window to facilitate investors, establish cooperation between all government ministries and departments and fast-track project development,” the ambassador said. “The core objectives of SIFC include revitalization of our economy, integrating it with international capital markets and ensuring steadiness and continuity of policies by adopting best practices and providing salutary investment milieu.”
Ambassador Khan identified information technology, energy, agriculture, mining and defense production as areas ripe for investment in Pakistan, noting the SIFC will shorten lengthy business processes for foreign direct investment in these and other key sectors.
Highlighting Pakistan’s strong 76-year strategic and economic relationship with the United States, the ambassador stressed that the partnership continues and “we foresee brighter prospects for its growth.” And the two sides have recalibrated and rejuvenated their relationship by emphasizing equally the security and non-security dimensions.
In the non-security realm, he said, the two sides were enhancing the space for economic partnership encompassing trade, investment, energy, climate change, healthcare, education, agriculture, technology and people-to-people exchanges.
“This is an ideal time to invest in Pakistan and to promote Pakistan’s products and services in the United States,” Khan said. “All fundamental elements are in place for Pakistan to grow.”
Emphasizing the potential of the country, especially its advantageous geographical position to serve as a trade and business corridor, the ambassador said that “Pakistan is part of a new business ecosystem called MENAP (Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan) by venture capitalists. The population of this region is 600 million, out of which 230 million are Pakistanis. We are also part of another overlapping ecosystem of Central and West Asia.”
Noting the availability of a robust communication and data infrastructure with highspeed internet to support a growing gig-economy and human capital, the ambassador pointed out that there was exponential growth in tech startups in Pakistan during the past four to five years.
“In 2018 the venture capital funding for Pakistani startups was merely $10 million a year. Today, it should be more than $1 billion a year. Our IT exports are $3 billion,” he said. “We also have one of the fastest-growing markets of freelancers and e-commerce.”
Ambassador Khan thanked the US government for supporting his country’s efforts to increase collaboration between US investors and Pakistani firms.
“Recently, a memorandum of understanding for investment of $40 million was signed between USAID and a Pakistani American-led entity in Silicon Valley,” he said. “This is just the beginning. The US government recognizes Pakistan as a big and attractive market for investors in the IT sector.”
Ambassador Khan also highlighted investment opportunities in various sectors of the economy including diversification of its energy mix, mineral resources and earth metals and the agriculture sector especially towards increasing yields of agri-products, corporate farming, dairy farms and feedlots. He also recounted various incentives that are being offered to the business community under the investors-friendly regime.
“Pakistan is rich in many minerals, especially copper, gold, lead, zinc, iron ore, coal, lithium, rare earth, bastnaesite, aluminum, chromite and nickel,” the ambassador noted. “Precious and semiprecious stones include ruby, emerald, topaz, tourmaline, quartz, peridot and aquamarine.” Barrick Gold, a Canadian mining company, is already aiming to initially extract 170,000 tons of copper and 300,000 ounces of gold every year, he added.
“Pakistan has the expertise for manufacturing semiconductor chips for various electronic devices but does not have the resources,” the ambassador continued. “It has substantial lithium reserves, a key ingredient for battery production that would contribute to future sustainable energy solutions.”
Ambassador Khan urged the American sovereign wealth funds and investors in general to “invest in these projects in Pakistan: IT, energy, mining and agriculture – for big wins.”
Expressing optimism that abundant capital was expected to come to Pakistan from the Gulf’s public entities, the ambassador said that the US private sector could partner with those entities, or they could take their own initiatives.
Noting that one million Pakistani Americans were serving as a bridge between Pakistan and the United States, Khan reiterated his call to the expatriates to have faith in Pakistan. “Invest in Pakistan and invest in the future of Pakistan and Pakistan-US relations,” he said. “Pakistan is going global beyond the region to MENAP, to Central and West Asia, to the United Kingdom and Europe, to China, and most importantly to the United States. Join us, you are already there but scale up – that’s my appeal to you.”
Ambassador Khan expressed his appreciation to Mr Mahmood Majeed and Mr Aamir Chalisa for meticulously choreographing the events during the summit and wished OPEN Chicago even more successes in its objectives and endeavors.
Other engagements during the ambassador’s Chicago visit included a meeting with Congressman Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), visits with the Pakistan Student Association at DePaul University and Pakistani American community leaders.
(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)
