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Gas pipeline will promote peace in the region: Aziz

* Says he will visit Iran in February to discuss project

DAVOS: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday voiced hope that the proposed Iran-India gas pipeline, which would run through Pakistan, would promote peace in the region and said that he would visit Iran next month to discuss the issue with the Iranian leadership.

Addressing a press conference on his arrival here, Aziz said he would discuss the matter with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whom he would meet next month during the SAARC summit in Dhaka.

Aziz said Pakistan was also engaged in talks with Turkmenistan and Qatar over such a project and that experts were considering various options that could best suit the parties concerned.

He said Qatari officials would visit Islamabad next month to discuss the gas pipeline project. He said that if begun, the project would take three to five years to complete and would cost $2 to 4 billion.

“This is a win-win situation for us all and will promote peace. This project offers attractive returns to all players,” he said.

He said Pakistan’s textile industry was bracing itself for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime and had imported three billion dollars’ worth of machinery over the last three years.

Aziz said Pakistan was an ideal country for investment and there was a window of opportunity for foreign businessmen.

He said information technology and telecommunications had been deregulated and the government had received $582 million as licence fees from two new cellphone service operators.

“Pakistan is a country which makes no distinction between local and foreign investors,” he said, adding that housing, tourism, hotel and real estate have a lot of potential to attract foreign investment.

Aziz met Egyptian Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Mahmoud Nazif on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Thursday. Both leaders stressed resolving the Middle East crisis as soon as possible.

They also discussed the situation in Iraq and hoped that elections would bring peace and stability to that country.

The prime minister also met Prof Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, and discussed with him the prospects of setting up such a forum at the South Asian level. app

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