News
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Zardari invites Russian businessmen to invest in PakistanST PETERSBURG: President Asif Ali Zardari, on Friday, invited the Russian business houses to invest in infrastructure projects in Pakistan, for which equity may be raised through local stock exchanges.
President Zardari’s short visit to the historic St Petersburg, Friday evening, on the second leg of his Russian visit, culminated in a decision to task Russia’s leading hydro power conglomerate with preparing a feasibility report for building small 5-10 MW run of the flow hydro power plants across Pakistan to serve as captive power source for local industrial complexes and domestic consumption. It was also decided in principle to declare St Petersburg and Karachi as sister cities to further boost trade and commerce.
Briefing newsmen, presidential spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar, said that soon after arrival in St Petersburg, the president met the governor of the region followed by a meeting with business houses of St Petersburg.
Addressing the businessmen, the president said that the future prosperity of the region lay in energy pipelines, railways and other connectivity projects. “As a political leader of my country I open the doors for you and it is for the businessmen to take advantage of closer business relations between the two countries,” the president said.
President Zardari said this was the first official visit of a Pakistani head of state in the past 37 years that had been undertaken in the hope that time had come for the two countries to forget the legacy of the Cold War era and forge new relations for the benefit of their peoples and indeed for the benefit of people of the region.
“There is no reason to remain mired in the distrust of the past,” the president said. Zardari said that he had very fruitful discussions with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and expressed the hope that mutual realisation of the need for trade and business and turning a new leaf would usher in a new era in relations between the two countries.
He said that the Pakistan Steel Mill that was built with Russian expertise and assistance was awaiting renovation and enhancement of its capacity to 7 million tonnes and offered a great opportunity to the Russian entrepreneurs to avail it. The president stayed in St Petersburg for less than three hours before leaving for Pakistan. He was seen off at the St Petersburg’s airport by Russian officials and Pakistan’s Ambassador in Moscow Khalid Khan Khattak. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk