Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday acknowledged that some multinational companies have left Pakistan due to “high taxes and energy costs”; however, at the same time, he called on them to revise their business models, aligning them with the “modern world”. He made the remarks while addressing an event in Islamabad today. The minister, in his address, talked about the exodus of multinational companies from the country, stating, “There are firms that are leaving Pakistan, which is true, and we must acknowledge if the taxation is high, energy cost is high or financing cost, those have been real issues”. However, the minister continued: “But it takes two to tango [..] if you are wedged into your business models from the last 50 years, it is not going to work in the modern world”. Citing Nestle and Unilever as examples of MNCs successfully operating in Pakistan, he said, “If Nestle and Unilever can do local sourcing, because of which their margins remain high, they are now able to export, which is why they stay”. The minister also shared that in the last 18 months, “20 new foreign investors had entered the country”. Talking about the government’s privatisation efforts regarding State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), he said that 24 SOEs have been handed over to the Privatisation Commission. He elaborated that the losses suffered due to SOEs were a “huge gap”. Aurangzeb hoped that the amount could be put to a much better use going forward. He recalled that the government had to close down the Utility Stores Corporation, Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO), “not because 1,000-5,000 people were employed there, but because of the subsidies that the government was providing them”. “More importantly, it was the corruption built into those subsidies that was the real cost to the exchequer,” the finance minister maintained. More to follow.