U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her visit to Pakistan announced more than $500 million in a new facilitation programs for Pakistan. Clinton made the announcements at the second U.S-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, a forum on multiple issues, including energy and public diplomacy. It was stated that the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) will provide $50 million to the JS Private Equity Fund II LLC, which has a target capitalization of $150 million and seeks to achieve superior capital appreciation through opportunistic investments in companies positioned to benefit from positive macro-economic developments in Pakistan.
OPIC is an arm of the US Government which assists US businesses to invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets and supports US foreign policy. This allocation was a follow up of the convention mentioned in Obama’s Cairo speech last year of stimulating innovation and technology transfer in Muslim countries, predominantly. OPIC selected JSPE, as it is the largest and the most successful private equity firm operating in Pakistan.
JSPE’s mandate with this stipulation would be to promote access and growth of technology by empowering companies in the sectors such as IT, healthcare, education, infrastructure, telecom, media, business and financial services and clean-tech. Being part of the JS Group which is the leading financial services holding group in Pakistan, JSPE will capitalize on this commission to catalyze and facilitate private sector investments and enhance the region’s capacity in these underdeveloped sectors.
