Survey shows 80pc US businesses optimistic about Pakistan

KARACHI: Many US businesses are optimistic and remain committed to Pakistan, but the international perception of Pakistan is poor, making it challenging for Americans to sell investment and expansion plans at a regional level, a survey conducted by the American Business Council of Pakistan (ABC) revealed.
President ABC Arshad Saeed Husain, while announcing the results of the survey, has said concrete actions are needed to make Pakistan a preferred investment destination.
The survey allowed ABC members to rate their satisfaction on various economic, regulatory and political factors that affect the performance and growth of businesses operating in Pakistan in FY 14-15.
Though, many American businesses were adversely affected by the poor law and order situation in the country, yet 80 percent respondents are optimistic about the future in longer run, the survey revealed.
“International standing and perception is extremely important as Pakistan competes with other Asian players to attract foreign capital in the form of trade exports, human resources, tourism and most importantly foreign direct investment,” Arshad said.
He said a political, economic and social environment that is predictable over the long term does the most to strengthen confidence and forms the basis of a country’s development.
The business climate was rated on each of the various factors influencing it including implementation and consistency of trade and competition policies, government development budget, domestic market, internal and external political climate and law and order. Of these factors, law and order received the worst response, with 74 percent of respondents rating it poorly.
Even though PAK Army is reportedly making progress with Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the government is conducting a targeted operation to rid the country of professional trouble-mongers, 48 percent of ABC respondents felt that the law and order situation had affected business operations and investment plans adversely.
Other areas of concern included policy consistency and implementation which has been rated poorly by over half of the survey participants.
A positive indicator is that over 65 percent of respondents have indicated that they plan to invest in Pakistan over the next 12 months and 80 percent are optimistic about the long-term economic and operating climate. For 2014-15 the vast majority of respondents rated the business climate of Pakistan as satisfactory with 11 percent giving it a poor rating. This is a marked improvement over 2013-14 when 44 percent of participants rated the business climate as poor.
The overall positive perception of American investors reveals an expectation of some economic stability and an improvement in Pakistan’s economic environment.
With the performance of each of the various federal ministry directly affecting the business climate, participants were asked to rate the performance of each ministry.
In this regard, the overall trend reflects a slight improvement in the performance of the various ministries from last year.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs enjoyed a significant improved rating with 77 percent of participants rating the performance as fair versus 2013-14 when 50 percent of participants rated the performance of the Ministry as fair and 44 percent rated it as poor.
The Ministry of Science and Technology also showed a marked improvement with 74 percent of participants reporting the performance as fair and 20 percent reporting it as poor. In 2013-14 just 47 percent had rated the performance of this ministry as fair and 43 percent had rated it poorly.