ISLAMABAD: A delegation of the World Bank (WB) met with Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Naeem Zamindar here on January 25, 2018, at BoI office in Islamabad. The Pakistani side was led by Naeem Zamindar meanwhile the World Bank Team was led by World Bank Regional Vice President South Asia Annette Dixon.
The meeting was attended by senior-level members of the WB and BoI. Members of WB team included International Finance Corporation (IFC) Regional Vice President Nena Stoiljkovic, WB Country Director for Pakistan Patchamuthu Illangovan, IFC Senior Manager Nadeem Siddiqui, IFC Principal Country Officer Shabana Khawar, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Programme Leader Gabi George Afram, Senior Economist Amjad Bashir and Senior Private Sector Specialist Kiran Afzal.
Besides BoI chairman, Pakistani side was represented by Sindh Board of Investment Chairperson Naheed Memon, BoI Secretary Samaira Nazir, BoI Additional Secretary and Lead on DB Reforms Fareena Mazhar, BoI Additional Secretary Saleem Ranja, Punjab Planning and Development Department Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo and other concerned officers of BoI and provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh provinces.
While welcoming the visiting team, Naeem Zamindar appreciated WB’s efforts for improving the business climate in the country and emphasised for further simplification of procedures in every area of the business cycle was important to attract investment in the country.
Fareena Mazhar gave a detailed presentation highlighting the initiatives of federal and provincial governments to automate and reform the processes involved in each business indicator. She apprised the participants that 41 reforms actions had been introduced in Pakistan for the last two years but World Bank has recognised only four reforms in the last year. She stressed on updating and expansion of contributors list, reviewing the flaws in the methodology and need for data corrections.
Naheed Memon also appreciated the efforts being made by World Bank Group, BoI and other stakeholders to improve ease of doing business (EoDB) in Pakistan. While referring to the efforts of the government of Sindh, she informed the house that a notification is being issued by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) regarding the reduction of connection time from 61 to 21 days. She informed that Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) will eliminate 04 procedures for reducing the time from 60 to 32 days for getting a construction permit. She also added that the government of Sindh will launch their Business Portal shortly.
Iftikhar Ali Sahoo also shared with the visiting team reforms actions initiated by government of Punjab, which inter-alia include automated land registration process in Lahore reducing the time taken from 56 days to 18 days and procedures from 7 to 4, reduction of time for getting construction permits from 60 to 21 days only and automation and linkages of sub-registrar offices with PLRA system. He also highlighted that three mediation centres made functional at District Court Lahore and around 6,812 references resolved out of 10,637 references.
Meanwhile, Annette Dixon expressed the views that 100 days sprint is a good and fantastic idea to have remarkable results but for the sustainability of this national reforms agenda, long-term efforts would also be required. She also emphasised that parallel efforts are also required to improve the situations in other supporting areas like energy, infrastructure, security and particularly human development etc. She also proposed a strong feedback mechanism for enhancing ease of doing business.
Nena Stoiljkovic also cherished the idea of 100 days sprint and expressed the hope that it will not reduce the focus on long-term sustainability of the whole reforms effort. She expressed the hope that SMEs will feel the change of all these initiatives. The vice president also put emphasis that our objective should be to bring our country on the list of top reformers.
BoI Chairman in his concluding remarks underscored that CPEC and SEZs initiatives of Pakistan provided huge investment opportunities to investors across all over the world. He also underlined that in Pakistan entrepreneurs are recognised as important drivers of economic and social progress and invited the Bank to invest in National Insurance Fund and other venture capital funds.
