Pakistan courts miners with pledges of local processing

Pakistan’s leaders used the November 12-13 Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum in Islamabad to court international investment, promising security and institutional support while calling for more minerals to be processed and manufactured domestically. The forum’s commitments and projections were presented by officials; the reports did not establish that they had yet produced new investment or implementation milestones.

Field Marshal Asim Munir, chief of defence forces and army chief, said Pakistan wanted to become a competitive destination for long-term mineral investment. He said the government would protect mines, workers, projects and associated infrastructure, and argued that development should benefit communities in resource-rich areas. Pakistan’s aim, he said, was to move beyond exporting raw materials toward refining and manufacturing.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he hoped Pakistan would become the world’s sixth-largest economy before 2050. He contrasted that ambition with a 2075 timeline he attributed to a Goldman Sachs assessment. His remark was an expression of hope, not a new economic forecast or an independently established projection.