Pakistan eyes GCC’s $40bn investment in agri sector in five years

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said the government aimed to fetch investment of billions of dollars from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries into Pakistan’s food and agriculture sector.

In a tweet, he said, the GCC countries import food items and agriculture products to the tune of $40 billion annually.

Shehbaz Sharif said the step would be taken under the supervision of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), for which the ground has been prepared, the official news agency reported.

In the next four to five years, he said, there would be an investment of approximately $40 billion in addition to the creation of four million new jobs.

The prime minister mentioned that at the national seminar on agriculture and food security held Monday, he stressed the importance of revitalising agriculture as a harbinger of the second Green Revolution.

“The second Green Revolution is about making agriculture the major driver of our economic growth, leading to food security that reinforces our national security,” he said.

He said the seminar was not a routine event meant for churning of rhetoric, but it represented the beginning of a long overdue national effort for the economic revival of the country owned by all stakeholders.

“The future holds the promise of departing from loans to building a resilient economy, which stands on its internal strengths,” he said. “Together, we will make it happen.”