PM for increasing FDI to $5 bn through SIFC

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said with the help of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), the immediate task was to increase the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country up to $5 billion

He said he had fervently advocated a unified approach to steer the country out of the economic challenges on a path to sustainable growth.

“Employing a whole-of-the-the-government approach, the coalition government has decided to set up a Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) with a mandate to frame economic policies that ensure policy predictability, continuity and effective implementation to revive the economy”, the prime minister said in a tweet.

He said by virtue of its composition, the SIFC will serve as a top decision-making forum to push through fundamental reforms in the structure of the economy. To begin with, he said the forum will focus on leveraging key sectors such as IT, agriculture, energy, minerals and mining, and defence production.

“Attracting investment from friendly countries remains one of the key goals of the SIFC,” he added.

Shehbaz Sharif said the need for a representative forum like the SIFC has long been felt, given the scale of the economic challenges caused by internal and external factors.

He said the textbook approach to deal with a unique set of problems is not workable anymore. Hence all the more reason to leverage collective wisdom to kick-start the economy to make it self-reliant, export-driven, and robust, capable of withstanding external shocks and upheavals.

“Creative ideas offer the solution to our economic problems,” he added.