ISLAMABAD ( STAFF REPORT )
The government was working aggressively to develop a Pakistan Business Portal which would be a virtual one-stop-shop platform and would reduce lot of compliance requirements for businesses and facilitate better growth of business activities. All the business related public sector organizations would be integrated with Pakistan Business Portal so that instead of going to various organizations, businesses could get registrations and licenses at one-stop shop. This was said by Mukarram Jah Ansari, Additional Secretary, Board of Investment while giving a presentation on reforms measures being undertaken by the BOI to improve Ease of Doing Business and Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative (PMRI) to facilitate investment and business activities in the country. Sialkot, Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi and other Chambers of Commerce & Industry also joined the presentation through video link.
Mukarram Jah Ansari said that with the implementation of new reforms, Pakistan would hopefully be included in the top 90 economies of the world in ease of doing business ranking 2021. He acknowledged that businesses in Pakistan were facing high burden of regulatory requirements and the aim of PMRI was to reduce compliance burden and cost on businesses by eliminating unnecessary procedures and processes. He said that mapping of 550 business regulations has been done for analysis, simplification, elimination of unnecessary laws and said that all systems and procedures would be automated for the facilitation of the business community. He said that soon, there would be a Single Window facility for registration of businesses that would be communicated to all relevant departments and organizations through an integrated system. He said that changing the mind-set and behaviour of people took time, therefore, the government was focusing on changing the procedures and processes to address problems and facilitate the businesses. He said that reforms under PMRI would be completed by 2023 in consultation with the private sector and the purpose of holding this online session with other chambers of commerce from ICCI was a part of getting their input to further improve the reforms process.
Speaking at the occasion, Fatma Azim, Acting President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry appreciated the Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative of BOI and said that this process should be completed on fast track so that the private sector could start reaping the fruits of these reforms. She said that the business community was the backbone of the economy and the government should provide them maximum facilitation to make Pakistan a hub of business and investment activities.
Abdul Rehman Khan, Vice President ICCI appreciated the initiative of BOI for holding an awareness session on PMRI at ICCI and said more such sessions should be held at ICCI by taking all major chambers of commerce on board. He also thanked the participating chambers and hoped that this session would be quite beneficial for them. The representatives of various chambers also asked various questions and shared their suggestions with BOI for further improving the reform measures.