OICCI seeks capital, export push

The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) told a visiting IMF delegation on Thursday that Pakistan should turn recent macroeconomic stability into faster private investment, exports and energy security. Iva Petrova and Mahir Binici met senior OICCI leaders and representatives of member multinationals, as The Express Tribune reported. The chamber noted that net foreign direct investment fell around 32% to $1.7 billion in FY26, even as the external position and sovereign credit profile improved.

OICCI wants lighter compliance requirements, better protection for investors and tighter alignment between federal and provincial authorities. It argued that local firms must lead by reinvesting at home, because foreign investors follow the confidence that domestic businesses display. Given costlier oil linked with the Middle East conflict, the group pressed for immediate conservation and, over the medium term, a strategy for self-reliance in power, gas and petroleum.

Beyond energy, the group argued that higher growth is out of reach without greater foreign exchange earnings, and it stressed competitiveness, productivity and export-led sectors. On state enterprises, it pressed for faster reform and privatisation wherever state ownership lacks a strong policy rationale. The chamber also wants state functions split across policy, regulation, facilitation and commerce, and a wider tax base covering property, retail and farming.