TEHRAN - Pakistan Housing Minister Rehmatullah Kakar said here on Monday that the South Asian country’s housing sector is open to investment by Iran and other members of the Economic Cooperation Organization.

Mr. Kakar is in Tehran to attend the second Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD), which opened yesterday and runs until May 14.
Pakistan currently has a shortage of 7 million houses, which is rising by 300,000 annually, Pakistan’s housing minister told the Tehran Times.
Pakistan invites companies based in Iran and other ECO members to invest in the country’s housing sector, he added.
Now Iran invests in road and dam construction projects in Pakistan, he pointed out.
The new government of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has a plan to build 500,000 new low-income housing units, Mr. Kakar stated.
Most would be prefabricated homes, which Pakistan already builds, he explained.
At the end of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development, the housing ministers will issue a Tehran Declaration, Mr. Kakar said.