Islamabad Dec 17  (DNA) :  Faheem Ahmed Abbasi, Additional Inspector General, Azad Kashmir visited the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and exchanged views with Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan President on capitalizing the potential investment opportunities in AJK. Muhammad EjazAbbasi former President ICCI, Muhammad Shakar Executive Member ICCI and others were also present at the occasion.

Faheem Ahmed Abbasi said that Azad Kashmir offered attractive investment possibilities in many areas including hydropower, tourism, mining, furniture and handicrafts that should be exploited by the local and overseas Pakistanis to achieve lucrative outcomes. He said that AJK has the lowest crime rate due to which it was one of the most secure places for investment and tourism. Therefore, more awareness was needed to be created among the businessmen and investors of Pakistan that AJK offered tremendous investment prospects at natural scenic locations, which were still untapped and explored. He said that the government was offering good incentives and concessions to the investors through its industrial policy for promoting investment in AJK. He said that the investment by Pakistani businessmen and investors in AJK would not only enable them to achieve profitable results, it would also put the region on the path of rapid progress and prosperity. Therefore, ICCI should play a role in bringing investors to AJK to explore potential opportunities of JVs and investment.

Speaking at the occasion, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that AJK possessed huge potential, especially for tourism and hydropower generation and emphasized that the AJK government should focus on better development of basic infrastructure that was the basic requirement for tourism promotion in the region. He urged that the AJK government should devise more conducive policies for infrastructure development through a public private partnership model. He said that AJK offered some ideal tourism locations while a well-developed network of roads & quality hotels would attract a huge amount of tourists. He was of the view that if world class infrastructure was developed in AJK, people would love to spend summer vacations in this part instead of going to the UK, Switzerland and other countries. It would also help the economy to grow better and uplift the living standard of people.

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that AJK has also good potential to promote construction, IT & telecom, manufacturing and services industries for which good incentives, more conducive environment and improved infrastructure were needed. He assured that ICCI would play a role to highlight business and investment potential of AJK to attract more investment to it so that the country could achieve sustainable economic growth and create more jobs for the people.