The Government of Pakistan in a bid to attract foreign investment, is now offering permanent residencies to foreign national individuals willing to invest in the country.
The development was announced by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry via his Twitter handle.
“In line with new National Security Policy, through which Pakistan declared geo-economics as core of its national security doctrine, the government has decided to allow permanent residency scheme for foreign nationals,” the tweet said.
“The new policy allows foreigners to get permanent resident status in lieu of investment,” Fawad added.
A number of countries including Tukey, Dominica, St Kittis Nevis, St Lucia offer residency to foreigners in exchange for investment, whereas, countries including Spain, Portugal, and Greece offer residence permit.
The scheme comes as Pakistan tackle a widening current account deficit on account of high import bill, while the exports and remittance fell short of stopping the dollar outflow, adding to the pressure on the external front.
Pakistan’s trade deficit widened by 106.4% during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 and reached $25.478 billion compared to $12.344 billion during the same period of 2020-21, revealed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.
On the other hand, Pakistan also struggles to attract foreign investment in the country, the Net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) dropped a massive 39% in the month of November at $136 million, down from $223 million in October 2021, revealed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data.
Cumulatively, Pakistan fetched FDI amounting to $797.7 million during July-Nov of FY22 as against $710.3 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year (FY21), an increase of $87.4 million or 12% YoY.
Meanwhile, the announcement comes as Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday launched the National Security Policy. PM Khan in his address said that the NSP has given a direction that there are many dimensions of national security as Soviet Union example was in front of everyone as how one dimensional national security failed to keep it united.
“We have prepared multi-dimensional national security policy with consensus and effort would be that all the departments and public should move in one direction to deal with all the challenges,” he said.