Special Economic Zone to establish on priority: BOI

ISLAMABAD: The government has given top priority to building a Special Economic Zone in the federal capital along with three other SEZs including Hattar (Haripur), Faisalabad and Rashakai (Nowshera) for facilitating international and local investors in the country.

National Industrial Parks (NIP), a development and a management company, is all set to develop the planned Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Islamabad, senior official of Board of Investment told APP here on Monday.

“We require around 50 acre lands to develop Special Economic zones (SEZ) in the federal capital for providing equal opportunity and facility to foreign and local investors, “he said.

Replying to a question, he said the government was working on a plan for reconstruction and modernization of BOI for introducing the best international practices to provide conducive environment for investment.

He said Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has also decided to prioritize the two new Special Economic Zones (SEZs) including Islamabad and Balochistan in total of four SEZs.

Applications for setting up private SEZs are being considered for further approval, he said adding that private SEZs would be fully facilitated on the line of government SEZs, including provision of tax exemption and one window operation to further ease down doing business in the country.

He said BOI was working on 100 days' reform agenda with a deadline of March 20 of this year for executing the 35 reforms to attract maximum foreign investment in the country.

The official said around 75 percent of work on 100 days' reforms agenda had been completed and all the concerned institutions including Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Employees Old- Age Benefits Institutions (EOBI) are also on-board for adopting the integrated approach for ease of doing business reforms.

According to plan, BOI wanted to hire experts to deal with different sectors including legal, export, investment, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and marketing and branding experts to enhance the capacity and modernization of the institution, he said.

Replying to another question, he said that Investment Facilities Center (IFCs) would also be established in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar to provide modern facilities to investors.

SEZs investors would get the facility for plant and machinery import without customs duty in all four provinces of the country.

“We want to introduce one window operation in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to facilitate the local and foreign investors”, a senior official said.

He said three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have become operational in the country and started production while remaining six zones would be rationalized by June, 2019.

He said the BOI is committed to improve Pakistan’s ease of doing business ranking to under 100 within two years to attract the international investors in the country.

Main business centers of Karachi and Lahore play major role to portray better ease of doing business in this regards, and provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab are in better coordination with centre.

He said that time, procedure, cost and companies’ registration and rapid business process including other 10 indicators define the ease of doing business ranking at international level.