World Bank groups Pakistan in top five highest private investment countries

World Bank groups Pakistan in top five highest private investment countries

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been grouped in top five highest private participation investment (PPI) countries owing to a few multi-billion-dollar power projects, with two hydropower plants worth $3.6 billion during the first half of 2017.

A half year update on private participation in infrastructure (PPI) published by the World Bank on Friday says that Indonesia was the destination for the highest amount of PPI investment, while Pakistan and Jordan were new entrants to the top five countries, joining Indonesia, Brazil and China. Indonesia, Pakistan and Jordan are amongst the top five highest PPI investment countries.

South Asia’s 17 per cent share of first half of 2017 global PPI investment may mark the reversal of a regional trend of declining shares of global investment, which reached a low of 4pc in 2015.

In the first half of 2017, investment in South Asia has already reached the full-year 2016 level, driven by the financial closure of two power megaprojects in Pakistan - the Suki Kinari hydropower plant worth $1.9bn and the Karot hydropower plant worth $1.7bn.