Pakistani and Turkish leaders vowed on Saturday to translate decades of fraternal ties into a concrete investment road map.
Presenting Turkish businesses with specific opportunities in energy exploration, mining, power infrastructure, privatisation, and special economic zones, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged participants at the Pakistan-Türkiye Business Conference in Istanbul to convert brotherly sentiments into actual investments and hit the ground running without delay.
“I want to declare here that Pakistan has earmarked 1,000 acres for…Turkish investors in this Special Economic Zone in Karachi, by the name of President Erdogan Special Economic Zone,” Sharif told a hall full of Turkish investors.
Sharif said that if business-to-business deals faced impediments, Pakistan stood ready for business-to-government arrangements “because that is what brotherhood is all about”.
Sharif pledged personal commitment, saying he would roll out the red carpet for Turkish investors as the prime minister of Pakistan. “All impediments and delays will be removed,” he said.
“My Turkish investor would be my master.”
Pakistan and Türkiye share deep religious and cultural bonds. Muslims in the Subcontinent took part in the Turkish struggle for independence after World War I by contributing money, jewellery, and other donations.
Ankara was among the very first countries that officially recognised Pakistan as a sovereign state in 1947.
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Speaking on the occasion, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz welcomed the Pakistani delegation and praised Islamabad’s role as a mediator that produced the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran, leading to a 60-day ceasefire.
He vowed to raise bilateral trade from its current level of approximately $1.2 billion to $5 billion, a target that he termed “very modest”.
“We need to raise it much higher,” he added.
Yilmaz highlighted existing Turkish success as proof of concept: direct investments in Pakistan already exceed $2 billion, while Turkish contracting firms have completed 74 projects worth approximately $3.5 billion.
He listed automotive, agriculture, food processing, medical devices, renewable energy, IT, e-commerce, education, tourism, shipbuilding, defence industry, and film and television production as promising sectors for deeper cooperation.
He specifically thanked Sharif on the Türkiye-specific special-zone project in Karachi, calling it “a very valuable model”.
Addressing the participants, Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on Privatisation Muhammad Ali said Pakistan has achieved macroeconomic stability in recent years.
The hard-earned economic consolidation reflects in Pakistan’s current-account surplus, exchange rate consistency, single-digit inflation, and per-capita income of around $1,800 – less than 10 percent of Türkiye’s $19,000, underscoring “the potential for growth”.
Ali told Turkish businessmen about robust legal protections that Pakistan offers to all foreign investors: change-in-law clauses, which protect businesses from the effects of amended regulations, sovereign guarantees where applicable, Pakistan-Türkiye Bilateral Investment Treaty, and international arbitration.
“Investors, principal products in investment and dividends repatriation are all protected,” he said.
He presented immediate privatisation opportunities: three electricity distribution companies in Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Islamabad.
Faisalabad alone serves around 25 million customers and accounts for 26 percent of Pakistan’s textile exports. Others also cater to large populations with solid revenue streams.
