Murad vows to introduce business-enabling reforms

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that he is actively working to introduce investment and business-enabling reforms (ease of doing business) by deregulating the business environment and facilitating business by reducing regulatory procedures.

This he said on Saturday while speaking as the chief guest at the Pakistan South East Asia Business Forum organised at a local hotel.

He said that his government had executed 15 procedural reforms, eliminated the need to take NOCs from the Sepa (Sindh Environmental Protection Agency) and, SBCA (Sindh Building Control Authority) for certain business categories. “We have reduced time for water and electricity connections and have also digitalised more than 90 per cent of land records and more than 50 per cent of land record archives,” he said.

Shah said that his government was working on plans to urgently review provincial taxation collection systems distributed across different agencies for new businesses and make them online and rationalise their collection procedures and points. “We are set to open business facilitation centres in Karachi and then in other bigger cities in the province,” he said and added: “We are launching a business registration web-based portal which will be available in all departments, business facilitation centres and then on mobile phone apps.”

Elaborating it further, he said the web portal would allow a new business to register with the industry, labour, excise departments, the SECP (Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan) and the FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) through a single application.

The chief minister said that Karachi’s weightage in the World Bank’s Doing Business index is 60 per cent and the Government of Sindh was committed to improving Pakistan’s ranking which was currently at 147.

He said that he was also committed to developing new and bigger businesses in Hyderabad, Sukkur and other resource-rich cities in the province. “One of the important factors for the success of ease of doing business reforms is communication and awareness,” he said.

“We are working closely with the private sector which is advising improvements and also helps projection of our efforts.”

He added that a very capable private sector advisory committee had been formed for guidance. Being chief minister, he said, he was committed to re-industrialising of Sindh and unleashing prosperity through business.

Shah said that in order to attract investment and business opportunities in the province, the provincial government had significantly contributed to resolving Pakistan‘s energy crisis by building power plants based on renewable and indigenous fuel.

He added that the road network throughout Sindh under the CPEC and onwards into Punjab and into Balochistan had created opportunities for new industries and trade by providing business access to domestic markets.

He said that agriculture business was a priority of his government as they supported it financially and strategically. “Warehousing, logistics, food processing, aquaculture along 300km coastline of Sindh, value-added exports of agro produce, better farming and water usage, technology inputs, and support for rice mill modernization (BMR) are some of the areas we are working on,” he said and added, “Work on research for better crops, trading of produce on the basis of mercantile exchange, and collateralised is in progress.”

Talking about textile, the chief minister said that textiles had been the major export earner as they were focused on encouraging value-added textiles and garment manufacturing. “Since Karachi is the city where the auto-manufacturers do business so the provincial government is keen to support auto parts manufacturing here,” he said and added his government was facilitating large investments in refineries, steel, cement and petrochemicals as the demand for these essential growth components in Pakistan continued to rise. He said that his government had earmarked the development of a 300-acre marble city to mobilise the marble and stone-refining and processing industry on a large commercial scale to increase export revenues.

Talking about the tourism industry, the CM said that tourism and the sector of commercial hospitality was being supported and encouraged. He disclosed that his government had plans to develop modern tourist resorts and entertainment centres at Keenjhar, Gorakh Hill, Karachi and in other parts of the province.

He said that there was a tremendous opportunity for hotels in secondary cities of Sindh and all possible support was available for these projects. “Sindh should be a place to do more business and also a place to go for tourism given its history, culture and beauty,” he said.

The CM said that Special Economic Zones (SEZ) were being established at Dhabejji under CPEC projects. “Pakistan first three SEZs are in Sindh and the first SEZ at Khairpur,” he said and added that the provincial government had invested more than Rs50 billion to develop the SEZ.

The CM said that the development of Dhabejji SEZ under the CPEC was scheduled to begin by the end of this year. It spreads over 1,500 acres and is located within 40km of two ports and the airport, and 20km from one of Pakistan’s oldest industrial estate in Landhi. It is set to be Pakistan’s best connected and most viable SEZ in Pakistan. The zone will have a steel mill, a petrochemical factory, a logistics park in collaboration with NLC, a food processing park, an auto parts centre, and garment manufacturing factories, etc.

The CM said that his government welcomed all industries from all partner countries to do business in Djabejji SEZ. “Dhabeji SEZ will also have a five-star hotel and a state of the art vocational centre, 1.5 km train line station and for the purpose a request for a dedicated cargo terminal has been placed with Ministry of Railways,” he concluded.