Saudi Arabia, UAE likely to invest $46b in Pakistan’s mineral, mining sector: Musadiq
August 01, 2023
Published in: The Nation
ISLAMABAD-Minister of State for Petroleum Musadiq Malik has said that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and UAE have indicated to invest $46 billion in the country’s mineral and mining sector worth 6.1 trillion dollars.
Pakistan will establish a global standard regulator for the mineral and mining sector, Minister of State for Petroleum Musadiq Malik announced here while briefing the media regarding ‘Pakistan Minerals Summit – Dust to Development – Investment Opportunities in Pakistan’, to be held here today (Tuesday).
The minister said that Saudi Arabia and UAE have indicated an investment of $24 billion and $22 billion respectively in the country’s mine and mineral sector. “We believe that the United States is a major economic power and the force behind it is companies like Apple, Google and Amazon. The value of these companies is six trillion dollars,” he added. While Pakistan’s mineral wealth is estimated at $6.1 trillion. “We are not incapable to extract these gold, copper, lithium and coal reserves in our country,” he maintained. Musadik Malik said there are three main objectives of launching mineral revolution, which is aimed at unveiling a new policy regarding mining and mineral exploration in the country.
There are three goals of the mineral revolution, which will be unveiled in a forum from Dust to Development, he added. “The theme is dust to development, which means that we are not going to sell dust, but will sell development,” he said. The first aim is the development of poor and to provide them job opportunities, minister of state maintained. So far we were selling dust, even from Reko diq also we are selling dust. But in future in Rekodiq and all other such field we will be mining, smelting and will be doing value addition. Our next target is the export of these products, he added. Under the proposed mining revolution, we will first initiate mining process, later turn to smelting and at the end will move towards making value added goods, he maintained.
He said that as per the plan, whatever metal is produced in Balochistan, its industry will be established in the province. “We are planning to establish small industrial clusters. These small industrial units will then be linked to the industrial zone at Gwadar port,” he maintained. Similarly, in all the other regions of the country, such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir or any other area, where mineral reserves are extracted, small industrial units will be established.
In this country, it’s hard to install electricity and gas meters due to bureaucratic red-tapism, the minister lamented. We will bring a completely new plan to facilitate the investors, the minister said and added that they will get rid of the burden of bureaucracy. “Our second theme for tomorrow’s conference is from Red Tape to Red Carpet” the minister announced. “Tomorrow, for the first time, we are rolling out the red carpet,” Musadik Malik said. He said that there are 50 types of laws of related mining and minerals sectors in Pakistan. All such laws will be harmonized and by combining all of them, a regime will be created, which will make the process easy for the investors, he announced.
Targets have been given to the ministry regarding mining. Pakistan will adopt the world’s highest standards of health and safety in the mining sector, he maintained. The minister said that the country will deregulate the mining sector in a phased manner. Similarly, the government will give a simple scheme regarding tax. Musadik Malik said the entire policy regarding mines and mineral will be implemented under one window operation through Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).
