THERE is a sale in Pakistan and everything is cheap.

This sums up Punjab province Governor Salman Taseer's message to foreign investors who are undecided about whether it is safe to invest in a country that suffers from bomb attacks because it is a frontline in America's "war of terror".

Since the installation of a new government about eight months ago, Pakistan has been trying hard to woo investment from neighbours like China and friends such as Saudi Arabia to refill its depleting foreign reserves and put the economy on track.

Statistics from Pakistan's Board of Investment show that Malaysian companies contributed the second largest chunk of investments, US$205.9 million (RM734.2 million or S$305.89) in the first two months of the 2008-2009 financial year.

For Salman, who was appointed to the job recently, now is the best time to invest in Pakistan.

"You can get fantastic buys. The property market is cheap, the equities market is cheap and there is a currency bubble in the value of the Pakistani rupee, which is expected to drop in value against the US dollar next month.

"Our foreign ownership laws are some of the most liberal in any country. You can come in and buy a company and have a 100 per cent stake," Salman told a group of Malaysian reporters on a visit to Pakistan here.

Despite Salman's encouraging view of the state of health of Pakistan's economy and its commercial prospects, others are more sceptical.

A senior journalist with Dawn News television station says many are worried that the economy is on the verge of collapse.

"This new government has more than 40 ministries.

"That's 40 politicians and their families whose expenses the public will have to subsidise at a time when our foreign reserves are at US$6 billion," said M.K. Abbas, Dawn News deputy director of news and current affairs.

Eight months ago, just before President Asif Ali Zardari's administration took over, Abbas said Pakistan's foreign reserves stood at US$14 billion.

Salman feels that what is termed as a crisis by the media is, in fact, a haemorrhage as the country had to deal with the high oil prices and inflation in the middle of the year.

"There are now about 31 economies in the world that are on the verge of collapse including that of the United States. But, the price of oil has come down and even with US$6 billion in reserves, we can still survive.

"We do not depend on exports, our people's houses have not been mortgaged and our banking sector does not have rifts.

"There is a problem with external flows but we are solving it. No foreign company has lost money in the country for the past 50 years," Salman asserts.

To underscore Pakistan's viability as a place to invest, Salman points to Zardari's October visit to China.

The visit culminated in the signing of 12 pacts to enhance cooperation in various sectors including infrastructure, information technology, energy, telecommunications, agriculture, industry, minerals, trade, disaster relief and space technology.

The Saudi Arabian visit, it seems, has also yielded results. A report in a local English daily, The Nation quoted unnamed sources as stating that the Arab kingdom would give Pakistan US$4 billion and provide oil on a one-year deferred payment basis.

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