day Saudi-Pak Investment Conference here Monday sought setting up of a Saudi-Pak mutual investment fund and launching of a cargo airline exclusively for two countries. The proposals came up during the question and answer session held after Naveed Qamar, the visiting Pakistani Minister of Privatization and Investment, and Abdulrahman Al-Jeraisy, President of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), jointly opened the conference. A similar event will also be organized at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) on Tuesday. Qamar is leading a 150-member strong businessmen delegation to participate in the Saudi-Pak Investment Conference, considered to be first such event in the history of two countries. The conference participants said the volume of export from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia was affected due to high freight charges levied by passenger airlines. A mutual investment fund and introducing a cargo airline service would go a long way and remove major impediments in trade between the two countries. Dr. Amr Al-Dabbagh, Governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), and a number of prominent Saudi businessmen and investors and Pakistani Ambassador Shahid Kareemullah attended the conference. Qamar called on Saudis to invest in his country, which he said was at the crossroads of financial uncertainty. He said strong political relations Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been enjoying did not match the bilateral trade and economic ties. Organizing of the first ever Saudi-Pak Investment Conference reflected the strong political ties between the two countries, he said. “We put to test the already excellent relations of our friends in Saudi Arabia,” he said while inviting the Saudi investors to invest in Pakistan at this time of financial crisis. The minister lambasted the Western media, particularly the satellite channels such as CNN and BBC, which, he said, were portraying a wrong image of his country. He urged the Saudis to visit Pakistan and get a first-hand impression of the investment climate there. “Seeing is believing,” he said while extending an open invitation to the Saudi investors. Al-Dabbagh said SAGIA will schedule a Saudi delegation to visit Pakistan next March while Al-Jeraisy has also announced his plans of a Saudi businessmen group to visit Pakistan in the near future. Qamar said the objective of holding Saudi-Pak Investment Conference was to provide a solid platform to Pakistan's private sector to seek cooperation with their Saudi counterparts through individual business-to-business meetings after the conference. Saudi Arabia has been instrumental in providing unparalleled assistance to Pakistan in times of financial crisis or any natural calamity that hit the country. Besides, the Kingdom has been a source of huge foreign exchange through remittances by a strong Pakistani community employed in Saudi Arabia, he said. He said the investment climate in Pakistan offered lucrative opportunities investments in areas such as agriculture, power generation, banking sector and infrastructure development. Qamar said President Asif Ali Zardari will visit Saudi Arabia in the near future. While referring to the total volume of bilateral trade that amounted to $730 million between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, Al-Jeraisy underscored the scope and possibilities of expanding trade relations between the two countries. __
