Germany eyes energy investments in Pakistan

BERLIN: Germany is looking to increase its investment in Pakistan’s energ y sector, provided companies are reassured about the security situation, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday during a visit by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Merkel said Germany’s Kf W state development bank was already involved in projects in Pakistan including hydro power plants, but added that the security situation was sometimes a deterrent.

“We can look at intensifying these (investments), as long as the conditions are right,” Merkel told a joint news conference with Sharif.

“It is i mportant that the prime minister is successful in improving the security situation and the legal system so that investors feel safe,” said Merkel, adding that the agricultural sector also offered opportunities.

Pakistan has been beset by Islamic violence since it threw its support behind the US-led campaign against militancy launched after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, while shelling along the border with arch-rival India recently has frayed already fragile ties between the two countries.

Sharif urged German firms to invest in his country.

“Pakistan is facing an acute shortage of energy,” he said.

“We believe in the next three years we should be able to have at least additional capacity of about 4-5,000 megawatts of electricity,” he said adding that would increase further in the longer term.

Sharif said German firms, some of them world leaders in renewable energy technology thanks to the country’s shift to green energy and away from nuclear power, were keen to invest. — Reuters