Saudi Arabia, UAE invest $26m in Pakistan

Dubai: Pakistan’s foreign investment increased by 48 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

During this period, Saudi Arabia and the UAE together invested $26.8 million (Dh98 million). In 2023, Pakistan established the Special Investment Facilitation Council, a joint civil-military initiative aimed at streamlining foreign investment in key sectors such as agriculture, mining, minerals, and tourism, as reported by Saudi news agency Arab News.

This initiative was launched amid Pakistan’s ongoing economic crisis, which had brought the country close to a sovereign default. A critical $3 billion (Dh11 billion) bailout from the International Monetary Fund in 2023 helped avert further economic collapse.

On a recent trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif held discussions with leaders from both countries to strengthen trade, investment, and energy cooperation.

In October, Pakistani and Saudi businesses signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding worth $2.2 billion (Dh8 billion). During Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia last week, the two countries agreed to increase that figure to $2.8 billion (Dh10.2 billion).

Pakistan is also seeking to leverage its strategic location as a key trade and transit hub, connecting landlocked Central Asian countries to global markets while forging mutually beneficial economic ties with Gulf nations.