Pakistani tycoon's unique way of showing investors 'his country is safe'

A Pakistani tycoon travelled all the way to snow-capped peaks in northern Pakistan to convince investors, clients, and company executives that the country is safe for business.

Zia Chisti, chose a unique way of ensuring his clients understand that Pakistan, which has struggled against rampant terrorism, has changed since The Economist termed it as “the world’s most dangerous place” almost a decade ago, Bloomberg reported. 

The businessman, who grew up in Lahore, gathered a group to ski in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan. The group included Alessandro Benetton, heir to the billionaire family that owns the iconic namesake Italian clothing company, and Huawei Technologies Co. rotating Chief Executive Officer Guo Ping. 

“Pakistan by any reasonable and adaptive measure is an extremely safe place to do business,” said Chishti, whose office oversees the White House. “All in all it’s a very favourable place to do business and the world perception just has to catch up.”

Multiple military operations have curbed terrorist groups operating in the country. Last year, civilian deaths from terrorism dropped to the lowest in more than a decade.

Pakistan’s global competitiveness ranking has improved in the past two years, moving above the bottom 20 countries, according to a World Economic Forum report released this week. Crime and theft had the biggest drop in problematic factors for doing business this year along with poor work ethic of labour force.

Chishti is the Founding Partner, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at TRG Holdings. His latest focus is artificial intelligence company Afiniti that is planning to list on the Nasdaq Composite Index with a valuation above $2 billion next year, according to persons familiar with the matter, giving it potential to have one of the largest enterprise software IPOs in recent years.