J. P. Morgan sponsored group of foreign investors paid a visit on September 07, 2022, to have an interaction with the Management Committee (MC) of OICCI. Ghais Khan, President OICCI, Amir Paracha, Vice President OICCI, Rehan Shaikh and Samer Chedid as members of MC warmly welcomed the delegation, which included Tim Ash, Portfolio Manager at Bluebay Asset Management, Yannis Lykouris, Portfolio Manager at Baillie Gifford Asset Management, Joe Delveroux, Portfolio Manager at Amundi Asset Management, Ayomide Mejabi, Frontier Markets Research J.P. Morgan, and Amin Mohammad Khowaja, CEO, J.P. Morgan Pakistan.

Ghais Khan after giving a brief introduction of the chamber, provided a snapshot of the current economic situation of Pakistan and the opportunities it offers to the investors. He also informed that to successfully steer the economy from the difficult times, the government took some harsh measures such as adjusting energy tariff, rolling back some of the subsidies and increasing the policy rate etc. Pakistan successfully navigated through the pandemic by timely taking the required policy actions. Exports and remittances have shown healthy growth during the last financial year, however, imports during the same period were a matter of concern, which is mainly derived by globally high energy and food prices.

The delegation asked various questions on the economic and business outlook to which all the Management Committee members responded and presented their perspective accordingly. The global commodity/energy prices and inflation intensified its impact on Pakistan, which was already in a strained economic situation. While the restoration of IMF package partially helped restore confidence, it opens the doors for other friendly countries and investors. However, the recent floods have caused significant loss to people’s assets and livelihoods and are expected to impact the initial growth estimates. High energy import cost and low exports, being the main economic challenges of Pakistan at the moment, is further aggravated with low trade with neighbors which also prevents exports from reaching full potential. Keeping all this in view, the government is taking necessary steps to stabilize the economy. Trade with neighboring countries is being opened to control food inflation and privatization is being given priority. Digitization offers a great opportunity for Pakistan for exports considering the young population of Pakistan and the proliferation of IT and technological services in the country. Unlike the developed world, the second and third tier cities have not been fully explored, which also provides tremendous growth opportunities.

The participants also discussed various short run measures that the government needs to take to boost investment in the country. These include forming a charter of economy which is backed by all the stakeholders to ensure the continuity of policies, strengthening relationship with neighboring countries through more trade integration, deregulating the economy and participate in the global value chain.

The host of the delegation, Amin Mohammad Khowaja, thanked OICCI for sharing their viewpoint on matters of mutual interest. The meeting ended on the agreement to enhance the interaction in future.