Despite all the announcements of billions of foreign investment in Pakistans commercial capital, none of it has materialised
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\01\03\story_3-1-2008_pg12_2
No foreign investment made it to Karachi in ’07
** CDGK signed over $900 million worth of projects with various foreign firms*
** Fate of KEE, IT Tower, Bio-Gas Plant and others yet to be decided*
By Jamil Khan
KARACHI: The City District Government Karachi (CDGK), led by City Nazim Mustafa Kamal, set out to bring a lot of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the city for the year 2007, but like 2006, this year has passed without any of the development projects materializing.
During the last two years, the CDGK has signed millions of rupees worth of agreements with various foreign companies to invest in the city and construct things such as the IT Tower, the Elevated Expressway and desalination plant, but, not a single project has materialized to benefit the citizens.
The city nazim has repeatedly claimed that it was their government which brought such huge amounts of FDI to the city, but, work has not kicked off on a single project in the year 2007, the year in which the city saw a number of bloody events.
City government officials had clarified that the May 12 mayhem scared many foreigners away from the city as they did not want to invest their capital in a city where no one is sure about the next day.
“As the situation was getting calm after May 12, the recent incident of October 18, in which two bomb blasts shattered PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s welcome rally, once again shadowed over the city’s future regarding foreign investment. Now, the three-day wheel-jam and shutter-down strike has affected possible development for another couple of months,” an Enterprises and Investment Promotion Department official said.
It may also be mentioned that the present CDGK regime had thwarted the previous city government, which failed to bring any foreign direct investment in the city, but, in the last two years, the situation has been the same when it comes to Karachi and foreign investment.
During the 27-month period of the current CDGK, covering 2006 and 2007, the city government had signed agreements with a consortium of foreign firms for the construction of a 47-storey IT Tower and call center, a desalination plant at Hawkesbay, a 24-kilometer long Karachi Elevated Expressway, a 50-MW power generation plant at Dhabiji, a bio-gas power generation through dung plant at Cattle Colony and for the revamping of slaughterhouses in Cattle Colony.
These projects were to bring prosperity, improve the life style of the common man and generate around 67 percent of the revenue for the national exchequer. Foreigners either blame terrorist activities or the policies of the city or provincial governments.
It may also be mentioned that all such projects have to be completed on a BOT (built, operate and transfer) basis, and the CDGK is bound to provide all the facilities, including the provision of land, for all the projects.
