Govt implementing ‘ease of doing business’ strategy

ISLAMABAD: The government is implementing a nationwide ‘ease of doing business’ reform strategy to improve business climate and foster private investments, finance minister said on Tuesday.

Minister Ishaq Dar directed the officials of finance ministry that specific actions that are required to be taken for the purpose must be identified along with the timelines. “Implementation of these time-bound reforms will significantly improve the country’s business environment and act as a catalyst for increasing both domestic and foreign investments,” Dar said.

Dar directed the ministry to work in close collaboration with other concerned federal and provincial government agencies including Board of Investment (Bol),  Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) in making every effort to facilitate the foreign as well as domestic investors and businessmen.

“Pakistan is increasingly being identified as a business and investor-friendly country,” the minister said.   He stressed on the need for ensuring coordination between all the stakeholders for the implementation of ease of doing business reform strategy 2016. 

“It was gratifying that the World Bank, in its recently-published Doing Business 2017 report, had acknowledged Pakistan’s progress towards the ease of doing business for small and medium-sized enterprises,” the minister said. As a result of the government’s measures, Pakistan has moved up four notches in the rankings over the last year and is among this year’s top 10 global performers.

He said the government is fully focused on improving growth and productivity in all the economic sectors, be it agriculture, industry or services. 

The minister said the government has put into implementation a countrywide ease of doing business reform strategy with time bound measures to strengthen the business climate and foster private investments.