Pakistan clears $43b Emaar plan

Emaar, the largest Arab property developer by market value, yesterday received government approval for a Dh157.81 billion ($43 billion) project to develop two island resorts near Pakistan's port city of Karachi. With 85 per cent equity in the project, Dubai-based Emaar will build apartments, offices resorts and entertainment facilities at Bundal and Buddo Islands over 13 years, Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Pakistan government's economic adviser, told the media in Islamabad yesterday. Pakistan's Port Qasim, which has 15 per cent stake in the project, will provide the land to Emaar.
This is the company's single largest project announcement and supercedes the $26.7 billion King Abdullah Economic City project in Saudi Arabia announced last year.
Emaar in May signed a series of MoUs worth $18 billion with the Pakistani government to build a mixed-used development comprising homes, hotels and a golf course in Karachi.
It also plans $2.4 billion of its signature master-planned communities in Islamabad and Karachi, due for completion by 2011.
With the latest announcement, the combined value of Emaar Properties' projects in Pakistan rises to Dh166.61 billion much higher that Dubai's annual GDP.
It is aiming to tap real estate demand in Pakistan, a $129 billion economy forecast to expand seven per cent this fiscal year, compared with 6.6 per cent last year.