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Saudi Giant Acwa Power keen to invest in Pakistan

KARACHI: Renowned Saudi power producing giant, Acwa Power, come to Pakistan to introduce its renewable energy technologies including solar, wind and other technologies through different projects.

This was indicated by Saudi Advisor for Energy & Mineral Resources Ahmad Al Ghamdi while addressing a delegation of Pakistani business community at Karachi Chamber of Commerce Industry (KCCI).

Saudi Arabia was interested in undertaking renewable energy projects in Pakistan, he said.

Headquartered in Saudi Arabia, ACWA Power maintains regional offices in Dubai, Istanbul, Cairo, Rabat, Johannesburg, Hanoi and Beijing. It invests in, develops, co-owns and operates a portfolio of 32 plants on three continents, with the capacity to generate 22.8GW of power and produce 2.5 million m3/day of desalinated water.

ACWA Power and its subsidiary operating companies employ over 3,000 people in projects in 11 different countries

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also discussed the investment opportunities in Pakistan’s mining sector and in this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding is at final stage which will soon be signed between both the countries, signifying the commencement of new relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia”, he added.

Saudi private sector was unaware of the opportunities and they are scared of making investments in Pakistan due to security concerns. “If we keep saying Pakistan is safe and secure, they will not believe us but if someone from Pakistani government comes and guarantees about the safety and security, besides extending full support of the Pakistani government, Saudi investors will certainly get a strong signal that they can come here and make investment in a very pleasing environment, Ahmad Al Ghamdi further said.

Referring to his meeting with Prime Minister’s Advisor Abdul Razzak Dawood around two months ago, Ahmad Al Ghamdi said, “During this meeting, we asked about some importation and exportation issues which were resulting in trade below the expected range. We are trying to resolve these issues and have already formed a committee comprising of Saudi and Pakistani representatives to identify the obstacles and devise strategies on how to resolve the same with a view to make things easier. Hopefully, we will finish that exercise soon and these obstacles will be removed for the benefit of both countries.”

Saudi Advisor said, “We would like to get some of the very good Pakistani products in Saudi Arabia and would also like to improve Saudi exports to Pakistan as we want to create a win-win situation for both countries.”

Earlier President KCCI Junaid Esmail Makda said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia share healthy bilateral relations based on cooperation in different economic spheres, particularly in trade and investment. In recent years, both countries have exchanged high-level delegations and developed plans to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, education, real estate, tourism, information technology, communications and agriculture.

He also stressed the need to ease visa policies for Pakistanis, particularly the business visa as it becomes very difficult for the business and industrial community of Pakistan to improve ties with their Saudi counterparts due to complex visa issuance procedures which need to be simplified.

In 2017, goods worth $400.8 million were exported to Saudi Arabia while the imports stood at $2.73 billion, indicating trade balance in favour of Saudi Arab by $2.32 billion.

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