Gulf investments are heading towards Pakistan

"The interest of Gulf companies is increasingly being invested in Pakistan, taking advantage of the vast potential of the Pakistani economy, which is growing at reasonable rates coupled with relatively low costs compared to other parts of Asia," said Tanmiyat Real Estate Investment Group. The report pointed out that the Pakistani economy is growing at rates of 4 to 5 percent over the past years and expected to achieve rates close to the next few years, especially with the state of openness to foreign investment, especially Gulf investments.

The report said that Pakistan was able to quickly overcome the instability that preceded the general election months ago, and began to attract investment, both real estate and financial investments to agricultural investments. The report pointed out that agricultural investments have begun to receive increasing grants in terms of importance for the rise in food prices globally, which brought back to agriculture and investments related to the agriculture sector. The UAE government is negotiating with Abraaj Capital to buy agricultural land in Pakistan as part of UAE plans to increase food security and combat inflationary pressures caused by rising food bills.

The UAE daily Al-Khaleej reported that Abu Dhabi had discussed with Islamabad the creation of a framework for investment in the agricultural sector in Pakistan in order to provide cheaper and longer-term resources of wheat and rice. A Pakistani official said the government had agreed to sell farmland to investors from the UAE, despite concerns in Pakistan itself that its local food resources were short. An official from Abraaj Capital said the company had started buying agricultural land in Pakistan since last year and confirmed that the total land purchased by government institutions and UAE private investors in Pakistan was about 800,000 feddans.

Pakistan, like other Asian countries with a budget deficit, rose 31.1 percent in the first six months of the current fiscal year (or $ 1.46 billion to $ 6.14 billion), the report said. The report attributed one of the reasons for the deficits in the Pakistani public budget, is the decline in the flow of foreign investment to figures much lower than expected for the fiscal year 2007 - 2008, which is $ 5 billion, and with the low flow of remittances of Pakistanis working abroad, which amounted to $ 2.17 billion, After the figure for the same period of the previous fiscal year was $ 3.18 billion.

Over the past four years, the UAE has invested more than $ 9.5 billion in Pakistan, and the investment is expected to reach $ 15 billion. Much of the investment has been in the real estate sector, including residential, shopping and telecommunications. Saudi Arabia is preparing to launch a massive investment project in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad worth about $ 450 million, the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan said. The Gulf region is the largest foreign investor in Pakistan's public and private sectors. Experts estimate investment in the real estate sector alone at over $ 4 billion. The project, dubbed the "Gulf-Pakistan" project, is the first of its kind in Pakistan, he added. The project includes a number of residential towers, a five-star hotel and a shopping center.

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