BoI’s one-window facility remains a pipe dream

WASIM IQBAL

ISLAMABAD: The Board of Investment has yet to implement its one-window facility for foreign and local investors that was prepared under the three-year International Monetary Fund’s Extended Fund Facility programme (September 2013-16), an official of the Board told Business Recorder.

The three-year programme noted Pakistan’s ranking in ease of doing business with considerable concern and added a time bound structural benchmark for the government in this regard: “to draft and approve a plan to improve the ranking on ease of doing business”. The then finance minister Ishaq Dar approved a plan early 2016 which was on the same lines as the Pakistan Muslim League-N manifesto in the 1990s: one-window facility… where all the requirements - permits and utility connections - would be available. “That was never implemented and remains a pipe dream,” the official said.

The IMF highlighted the need for strengthening the business climate throughout the three year programme and continuously urged Pakistani authorities to implement business climate reforms.

The World Bank’s ranking focuses on 10 parameters that relate to existing processes and regulations: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

There are 27 different interdependent agencies/departments, 7 at the federal level and 20 at the provincial level, which are relevant in the context of the 10 business indicators against which 190 countries in the world are evaluated. There are no coordinated efforts to achieve the desired objectives. There is no single agency dealing with ease of doing business initiatives.

The meeting of BoI Board - the top decision-making forum responsible for taking major business-related decisions chaired by prime minister did not convene a single meeting of the board during the past five years though BoI Chairman went on several foreign trips ostensibly to seek foreign investment. The scope of current work is limited to two provinces - Punjab and Sindh - but it is expected to be expanded to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan as well, the official of BoI said.

Sindh’s performance is very important as it has a 65 percent weightage in the country’s total ranking, while Punjab accounts for 35 percent.