RIYADH, 26 June — A group of 50 overseas Pakistanis based in Saudi Arabia has pledged an investment of SR750 million in various projects in Karachi and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the local city government.
The projects range from building a metro railway system to a new road transport project in Pakistan, in a bid to provide better transport facilities to the people. Many other projects to be implemented within the framework of the MoU include setting up of waste water treatment facilities and recycling projects, which together with the above two projects, are likely to generate employment opportunities for over 40,000 people in the country.
The MoU was inked between the local city government of Karachi and the Overseas Investors Group (OIG) based in the Kingdom. This was disclosed during a function organized by Bazm Nida-e-Pakistan to felicitate prominent Pakistanis, who have made outstanding contributions in different fields. Besides Bazm’s President Zahiruddin Butt, the event was attended by Rana Matloob Ahmed, welfare attache, on behalf of the Pakistan Embassy.
Referring to the projects to be executed in Pakistan, Rana Abdul Rauf, convener of the OIG, said the Karachi’s local government has also approached investors in different countries to participate in these projects.
The OIG is also seeking help from the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, Al-Awad Est., Bin Laden Group and Arab Banking Corporation for the execution of these projects in Karachi, whose population currently exceeds 12 million.
Rauf said the group has started working with a Swiss company to acquire luxury buses to be run in the port city of Karachi. He pointed out that the OIG will shortly invest some nine million Saudi riyals in the transport sector, mainly to run 50 new Japanese Hinopak buses in Karachi. This is the beginning of a major transport project, which will be implemented in phases in that city.
This fleet, he said, will be expanded soon and the number of buses will exceed 200. These buses, in fact, are being assembled in Karachi in collaboration with Japan.
“We are also talking to Daewoo of South Korea, which expressed its desire to press into service some 100 buses”, said the OIG convener adding that there is also a plan to set up workshops and other logistical facilities to offer better transportation services.
Referring to the projects he noted that the local government of Karachi will provide land as their equity in the projects, to be operated on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) or Build, Operate and Own (BOO) basis.
He pointed out that the metro rail project will alone attract investments worth millions of dollars into Pakistan. A study is currently under way to find out as how feasible the plan will be to operate overhead magnetic railway system on the models of China and Hong Kong.