Foras Investment Company, a subsidiary of Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is planning to set up 200 companies in 57 member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) over a period of five years.

Under a 10-year Muslim Ummah development plan, the Islamic Chamber has set up Foras (the Arabic word for opportunity) to accelerate the process of economic development across the Muslim world, said Chief Executive Officer of Foras Investment Company, Hatim Jamil Mukhtar while giving a briefing to a select-gathering of businessmen at the FPCCI Zonal office here on Wednesday.

Hatim Jamil Mukhtar said Foras, set up with a paid-up capital of US$100 million, would set up five sub-holding companies with headquarters in Karachi (Pakistan), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Istanbul (Turkey), Cairo (Egypt) and Dakkar (Senegal) to expedite the process of company formation in all the 57 countries of the Muslim world.

The Foras chief said that the paid-up capital of the company would soon rise to US$200 million from the present level of $100 million, hoping that the seed money provided by the Islamic Chamber would help accelerate the process of investment all over the Islamic world.

He said that the company had started work on the preparation of an investment roadmap for 10 Muslim countries including Pakistan. He said that the steps being taken by the Islamic Chamber and Foras would lead to the formation of Economic Consortium of Islamic world.