US embassy cable - 04AMMAN3951

UNCLAS AMMAN 003951 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EINV, PREL, PK, EFIN, JO 
SUBJECT: U/S LARSON MEETING WITH PAKISTANI MINISTER OF 
PRIVATIZATION AND INVESTMENT HAFIZ SHAIKH 
 
1. (SBU) U/S Larson met with Minister Shaikh for 15 minutes 
on May 15 on the margins of the WEF at the Dead Sea in 
Jordan.  Also present in the meeting were Larson visit 
control officer Greg Lawless and notetaker Amy Schedlbauer. 
 
2. (SBU) Larson gave the minister a copy of the draft G-8 
Plan of Support for Reform and welcomed Shaikh's comments on 
it and those of his colleagues, noting that it was still very 
much a dynamic draft.  Larson mentioned that they were 
looking for countries willing to be a leader on one of the 
initiatives and suggested that Pakistan may want to consider 
being a pilot country for the Task Force on Investment and 
have the opportunity to shape the Sea Island Summit.  Shaikh 
said they wanted to be supportive and would review and reply 
with comments.  Shaikh mentioned that King Abdullah had 
written President Musharraf about reform issues and suggested 
working together.  HS stressed that he thinks it's important 
to provide leadership, especially on the investment side. 
 
3. (SBU) Larson then mentioned his last meeting with the 
Finance Minister and that they had had a good run through on 
the economic dimension of assistance.  Larson said he thought 
there were a lot of possible opportunities for working 
together and combining efforts, especially in terms of 
attracting investment and promoting small business. 
 
4. (SBU) Shaikh said he was in London recently and 
participated in the Pakistani High Commissioner's investment 
conference with 300 British and Pakistani firms.  He said he 
was interested in doing something similar in the U.S. 
 
5. (SBU) Larson then turned to some of the other initiatives 
for Sea Island, particularly the remittance initiative to try 
to pull together G-8 support to bring remittances into formal 
banking channels.  HS stressed the importance and difficulty 
of converting remittances into investment.  Overseas 
Pakistanis aren't geared to finding investment opportunities 
in Pakistan for one million euros/pounds. 
 
6. (U) This message was cleared by Under Secretary Larson. 
GNEHM