Associated Press of Pakistan
Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has designed a special saving product for Overseas Pakistanis to fetch about US$ 500 million to US$1200 million per year by channelizing their savings held back in their respective resident countries.
In this regard the CDNS has designed Overseas Pakistani Saving Certificates (OPSCs), which would provide an attractive opportunity for expatriates to park their hard-earned saving in more reliable and secure government backed securities in their home country, said an official of CDNS.
The product would help to fetch an estimated investment in the range of US$ 550 million to US$ 1200 million annually, which was calculated on the basis of one forth of the 4.5 million Overseas Pakistanis living in the initial target market of Gulf Cooperation Council.
He said that if each one of living in GCC countries invest merely US$ 500 in this product in a year, it would help to fetch about US$ 500 million to 1200 million per year.
He said that OPSCS would be the first of its kind risk-free and scrip-less security for overseas Pakistanis on tap basis ,like all other retail products of CDNS and government, adding that it would be mutually helpful for both customers and government.
He said that the initiative aims at targeting the remittances from non-banking channels and the saving which were not channelized at present in the country and held back in the resident countries of the overseas Pakistanis.
The investment opportunities in the product would be available in both foreign currency and rupee with a tenor of 3 to 5 years with monthly profit, adding that the custodian of the product will be CDNS as it is for all the other products of the Government of Pakistan, he remarked.
He further said that there were no attractive avenue for the people living abroad for parking of foreign exchange in a government backed security as the remittances in the world represent one of the major international source of financing.
Keeping in view the regulatory requirements of the international markets, the product is proposed to be launched initially in Gulf Cooperation Council and subsequently be rolled out in UK and US and then other countries, he added.
The official said that such type of products were successfully operating in Bangladesh, India, the Philippine and other countries of the world and fetching savings for their respective countries.
He informed that National Saving has also designed other programs to economically assist the disabled and martyrs.
He further informed that committee that vast opportunities were existing for promoting saving practices and there has been 7.5 million clients of National Savings at present.