Mian Rashid Asghar.
FAISALABAD: Mr. Atif Munir Sheikh, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) has welcomed the successful visit of Prime Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia and hoped that both countries would take initiatives to transform their excellent, brotherly and religious relations into strategic partnership. He said that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are enjoying best relations for the last many decades but these relations could not be exploited to cover the industrial, commercial and business sectors. He said that Saudi Arabia is now ready to make huge investments in Pakistan due to the productive visit of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and as a result of it our Finance Minister is now negotiating with Saudi authorities to give final touches to the proposed investment plan. He said that Saudi Arabia is contemplating to set up a major Petro-chemical plant in Pakistan while some sites have already been identified where Saudi Arabia will make huge investments. Mr. Atif Munir Sheikh also mentioned the need for Naphtha Cracker plant to cater to the needs of dyes, chemicals and colours for the textile sector. He said that this plant would help Pakistan to trim its import bill while the textile sector would get comparatively cheaper chemicals which would also reduce its cost of production. Mr. Atif Munir Sheikh also welcomed the Kuwaiti offer to invest 75 billion dollars in Pakistan and said that oil rich Gulf States could fulfil our ever-increasing needs of oil and gas due to the newly infused warmth in our bilateral relations. He said that availability of cheap fuel for thermal units would also help Pakistan to overcome the problematic issue of load shedding. He hoped that strategic partnership would pave the way for the stabilization of Pakistan’s economy on a sustained basis.