2-day investment moot to begin in Skardu tomorrow
LAHORE – A two-day Ambassadors Investment Conference jointly organized by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Gilgit-Baltistan government will start on May 15 at a local hotel in Skardu.
Basic objective of the event is to bring the limelight the potentials of treasured land of Gilgit-Baltistan.
As many as 35 ambassadors and a large number of businessmen and experts of different economic sectors are likely to take part in the conference.
An exhibition of Gilgit-Baltistan products has also been arranged on the sidelines of the conference.
The Speakers include Governor Gilgit-Baltistan Shama Khalid, Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah, the LCCI President Zafar Iqbal Chauhdry and Advisor to Governor Gilgit Baltistan Mian Shafqat Ali.
All the government departments would also give presentations to the participating ambassadors.
There are number of areas of investment at GB including tourism, agriculture, minerals, hydel power generation.
The investment friendly atmosphere in Gilgit-Baltistan with incentives such as tax free zone, skilled labour availability and properly developed road network ensures conducive environment for business promotion.
Gilgit-Baltistan has 50,000 MW Hydel electricity generation potential which is yet to be tapped and foreign investors can make investment in this area. Organic Farming has a very huge potential for the investment because of the availability of a very hard working human resource and with little crime rate in all the seven districts of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Source: The Nation
This is a welcome step but the time chosen for this event is not proper. Firstly, the new set up has taken charge recently and I don’t think that it has chalked out its programs and strategies yet. An event of this level requires a lot of home work and preparation, which in the present case has not been taken care of.
Secondly, due to the present situation of Hunza-Gojal in the aftermath of the calamity and resultant formation of lake and now its being at the verge of collapse, all the national and international attention is towards it. Therefore, the event will be of less interest to the participants as well to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
One of the important component of the event “tourism” is directly related to the situation in Pakistan and secondly to the overall tourism policy of ministry of tourism. Currently, on both fronts there are no encouraging signs.
Given the situation, the event will not bring the desired results.