PM presented roadmap: BoI seeks greater power to deal with FDI projects

WASIM IQBAL

ISLAMABAD: The Board of Investment (BoI) has proposed to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf a roadmap to improve country’s foreign investment prospects by introducing certain amendments in Rules of Business in order to enable the board to approve, implement and monitor all foreign investment projects.

The proposed amendments were made during a visit of the Prime Minister to the BoI office on Tuesday. The BoI has urged the prime minister that the board should be the first contact point for all foreign investors. 

The board also underscored the need for the establishment of a one-window operation for the facilitation of investors on an urgent basis. It further proposed to the Prime Minister that all concerned ministries and departments should be located in BoI office so that approvals could be granted to foreign investors on a fast-track basis.  

Chairman BoI Saleem Mandviwalla also urged the Premier to raise the allowances of BoI employees to the level of those of PM Secretariat personnel’s. In a presentation to the Prime Minister, the board further proposed that all Ministries and Divisions could be directed to prepare pre-feasibility reports for marketable projects so that BoI could market them as investment opportunities.

The board was of the view that no speedy implementation of foreign investment projects could be ensured as it had no role in the approval of foreign investment projects. Moreover, it had no authority to approve foreign investment projects itself. This is one of the reasons that foreign investment has declined in the country, according to the board.

During its presentation, the Board also unveiled its future strategy in relation to organization of investment conferences and roadshows abroad. The BoI has planned to hold investment conferences in Norway, Poland, Germany, Moscow, Czech Republic, Turkey and the UK from September to October 2012. Investment conferences have also been scheduled for Malaysia, China, Korea and Japan from October to November 2012.

Similarly, conferences and roadshows are likely to be held at Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York in November 2012 and Brazil and Argentina in March 2013. Pakistani business community will also visit the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar in 2013.

The Chairman BoI also revealed that the Special Economic Zone Bill was scheduled for the President’s assent on 10th September, 2012. It envisages further liberalization by offering one-window facility to investors and grant of 10 years exemption on taxes and duties to zone developers and zone enterprises. For the first time, BoI is entrusted with a regulatory role for processing the applications of Zone Developers and offering a one-window operation.