Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb visited the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) on Thursday, meeting its senior leadership and leading foreign investors to discuss how to turn macroeconomic stability into investment.
During the meeting, the OICCI acknowledged the economic turnaround but noted that investment has not followed, with net FDI falling roughly 34% to $1.7 billion in FY26.
“Stabilization was the first step, not the destination,” said the minister. “Our task now is to turn it into investment, exports and jobs, and that means hearing directly from investors about what still stands in the way,” he added.
OICCI members’ primary concern was the approximately Rs. 103 billion in pending income- and sales-tax refunds, for which they sought a time-bound mechanism to pay or formally dispose of verified claims. They also called for rationalizing withholding and sector-specific taxes, medium-term fiscal and tax frameworks shaped through industry consultation, and a gradual reduction in government borrowing from banks to free up credit for the private sector.
“Pakistan has done the hard part of stabilizing its economy. The test now is whether that shows up in reinvestment and new FDI,” said OICCI President Umar Ahsan Khan. “Clearing pending tax refunds and giving investors predictable tax policy would be the quickest way to show that it does,” he added.
The Chamber also pressed for deeper reform: state-owned enterprises reform and privatization; a fix for power-sector circular debt; and wider taxation of agriculture, real estate, retail trade and SMEs. “Our members are not asking for favors; they are asking for predictability,” said OICCI Secretary General M. Abdul Aleem. “Stability gave us a foundation. Structural reform, and a consultative process that outlasts any one budget, will decide whether capital stays and grows,” he said.
The OICCI also emphasized the opportunity to translate Pakistan’s improving external relationships with the U.S., Gulf countries and China into greater trade, investment and export opportunities.
Former OICCI President Yousaf Hussain was also present on the occasion and received a souvenir from Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.