The Economic Chief of US Consulate General Karachi, Brian Bedsworth, accompanied by Mahreen Kashif Ghayas, Economic Specialist, visited OICCI on July 12, 2021, for a courtesy call and to get the Chamber’s outlook on the current business environment in Pakistan. The newly appointed Economic Chief was welcomed by M. Abdul Aleem, Secre/tary General, OICCI, and Ayesha Tammy Haq, Executive Director of the OICCI Pharma Bureau

M. Abdul Aleem, shared a detailed presentation with the US Consulate Economic team, which included a brief of research profile of OICCI, including a snapshot of the members contribution to the economy, overview of the current security environment, investment landscape of the country and its liberal approach to FDI, role of the chamber in facilitating FDI in the country including key challenges and opportunities for foreign investors. He mentioned that Pakistan offers a lot of opportunities for foreign investors and emphasized that OICCI members remain optimistic about the business potential of the country and have made capital investment of over US$ 18 billion, which is more than the country’s total FDI, in last nine years.

Brian Bedsworth discussed and sought OICCI’s views on several matters of business interest, which included contribution of US based companies, Intellectual Property laws and its enforcement as well as CSR activities of members. M. Abdul Aleem mentioned that there is a need to improve the international image of the country as “Security, Law & Order” is no more among the top five pain points of foreign investors based on OICCI Perception and Investment Survey of 2019. He also emphasized that the US based tech companies should consider investment and offices in Pakistan as it is the fifth most populous country in the world and it has vast potentials for US based companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, etc., considering the untapped potential with respect to digitization of economy.

The US Consulate Economic team expressed their desire to continue working together with OICCI team on areas of mutual interest. They thanked the OICCI team for the presentation and the responses to their queries for better understanding of the Chamber’s viewpoint on Pakistan’s current economic environment and business potential.