Investment, new businesses: BoI tasked to facilitate investors

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has assigned the task of creating more facilities for investment and starting new businesses in the country to the Board of Investment (BOI).

While presiding over a high-level review meeting to promote ease of doing business and investment and business activities in the country, the prime minister directed the BoI to take all relevant ministries, institutions, business community and provincial governments into confidence and submit a comprehensive system soon.

He said that the investors prefer to invest in those countries where barriers to doing business are very low.

He said that the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) played the role of the best assistant in the continuation of policies and the achievement of the goal of economic recovery of the country.

He added that the promotion of business activities and foreign investment in Pakistan bore testimony to the fact of hard work of the government team. The visit of the business delegations of friendly countries for foreign investment and the record boom in the stock exchange reflects the confidence of the foreign and local business and investment community in government policies.

He said that the BOI should devise a procedure on the style of one-window operation by taking all relevant ministries and provincial governments into confidence.

Such a procedure should be suggested so that investors and new business start-ups face minimum hurdles, added the prime minister. He said that the services of internationally renowned experts should also be taken in this regard.

The representatives of the business community and the provincial government should also be taken into confidence while formulating the procedure, he directed.

The proposals were presented to the meeting regarding the formation of a modern and international quality system on the style of one-window operation for the promotion of investment in the country and ease of doing business.

The meeting was attended by the federal ministers, Jam Kamal Khan, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Abdul Aleem Khan, Ahad Khan Cheema, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Azam Nazir Tarar, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Jehanzeb Khan, Members of National Assembly Ali Pervez Malik, Bilal Azhar Kayani, and Prime Minister’s Coordinator Rana Ehsan were present in the meeting.

Afzal and concerned senior officials participated besides the chief secretaries of the four provinces and well-known businessmen through video link.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024