Lotte plans more investment

KARACHI - South Korean business giant Lotte Group has so far invested $ 800 million in Pakistan and planning to make new investment in energy, food and tourism, and other areas. This was stated by the president Lotte Pakistan PTA Ltd, Asif Saad while addressing a press conference along with Chairman Board of Investment (BoI) Salim H Mandviwala at PTA plant in Port Qasim on Wednesday.
Secretary BoI Muhammad Saleem Khan, president Lotte Group Dong Bin Shin and top executives of the Group were also present on the occasion.
He said Lotte Pakistan was installing a 40 megawatts power plant at a cost of $45 million. Lotte Pak PTA will use 30 MW of power from this plant and provide the surplus 10 MW to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), he added.
Saad said that PTA plant was saving a foreign exchange of $100 for Pakistan in the shape of import substitution. The annual production of the plant is 500,000 tons of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), an essential raw material for textile industry, he added. BoI chairman said that the visit of Lotte Group delegation, consisting of its president and six CEOs of various subsidiaries gives a message across the world that Pakistan is a safe place for investment.
He hoped that soon, more such big business groups will be making investment in Pakistan. Mandviwala pointed out that Lotte Group was ready to make heavy investment in food, beverages, hotel, tourism, power and oil, and gas sectors of Pakistan. BoI chief said that the government will motivate the group to make investment in Pakistan. He said that serious efforts were on to attract investment for Thar coal to generate power.