ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has shown serious concern over the performance of the Board of Investment (BoI) during the present government in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

The AGP office observed that Pakistan’s FDI inflows in terms of quantum of investment remained low as compared to previous years from 2015 to 2018, which shows that the performance of the board in terms of attracting FDI is declining.

Audit is of the view that despite other factors affecting the FDI beyond the control of BoI huge decline also indicates low performance by the BoI.

The audit report 2019-20 will be presented in the next meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which shows that net FDI increased from $978.9 million in 2014 to $3,161.6 million, however, shows decline in 2018-19 to $1,606.7 million.

The officials of the BoI will be provided opportunity to justify its expenditure for attracting investments and share its efforts before the PAC, in the next meeting, when audit reports of the BoI would be taken for discussion.

The management of the board are of the view that an action plan is aggressively followed to attract the FDI and improve investment-to-GDP ratio to 20 percent during the next three years.

The management of the BoI further states to AGP that there was gradual increase of FDI over the period 2013-17; however, due to problems beyond the BoI’s control such as energy shortage, infrastructure, law and order, and global recession, the targets of investment policy could not be achieved.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021