Govt injects more clarity into SIFC initiative

ISLAMABAD: The government is to follow Chinese and Indonesian model with respect to utilisation of Armed Forces services in some specific areas.

According to the notification issued by Board of Investment (BoI), Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) shall have three tiers with the following composition:

(i) Apex Committee-SIFC ( a) Prime Minister; (b) Federal Ministers (Planning, Development & Special Initiatives (PD&SI), Finance, IT & Telecom, National Food Security & Research (NFS&R), Power, Water Resources, Industries and Production, Defence, Defence Production and Investment, Law & Justice); (b) Chief of the Army Staff; (c) by special invitation all Provincial Chief Ministers; (d) National Coordinator (Pakistan Army); and (e) a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister shall act as Secretary to the Apex Committee.

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(ii) Executive Committee-SIFC; (a) Minister for PD&SI; (b) National Coordinator (Pakistan Amy); (c) Federal Minister (Defence, NFS&R, IT & Telecom and Power, Information & Broadcasting); (d) Ministers of State (Petroleum) and Minister of State (Finance); (e) Provincial Ministers (Agriculture, Mines and Minerals, IT, Energy, Board of Revenue, Irrigation, Finance, Planning and Development and Investment); (f) Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, SIFC Secretariat; (g) all Provincial Chief Secretaries; (h) Director General (Pakistan Army), SIFC Secretariat; (viii) Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; (i) Secretary Board of Investment(Secretary SIFC Secretariat shall act as Secretary to the Executive Committee).

(iii) Implementation Committee-SIFC- SIFC Secretariat; (a) Special Assistant to the Prime Minister; (b) Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; (c) Director General (Pakistan Army) ; (d) Secretary SIFC Secretariat (BS:21)/ Additional Secretary (BoI); (e) representative of Pakistan Army; (f) five Sector Coordinators; (g) five co-coordinators ex-Pakistan Army (a dedicated Additional Secretary Board of Investment shall act as Secretary, SIFC Secretariat, as well as, Secretary to the Executive Committee and Implementation Committee): (b) Co-Opted Members: (i) Finance Secretary; (ii) Secretary, Board of Investment; (iii) Secretary, Economic Affairs Division; (iv) Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR); (v) Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) (to be nominated by Governor SBP); (vi) Provincial Focal Persons.

Sectoral Divisions include:

Defence Division: (i) Defence Secretary; (ii) Secretary Defence Production; (iii) representative of Pakistan Army; (iv) representatives of SPD, DGDP and DPEs.

Agriculture Division: (i) Secretary, Ministry of NFS&R; (ii) Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources; (iii) representative of Pakistan Amy.

Mineral Division: (i) Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum; (ii) representative of Pakistan.

Information Technology Division: (i) Secretary, Ministry of IT & Telecommunication; (ii) Pakistan Army.

Energy Division: (i) Secretary, Ministry of Power; (ii) Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum; (iii) Secretary, Ministry of Industries and Production;(iv) representative of Pak Army and; (v) representative of FWO.

As per Terms of Reference, the SIFC shall focus on investment and privatisation, initially in five areas including Defence, Agriculture, Minerals, Information Technology and Telecommunication and Energy (hereinafter referred to as the Relevant Fields).

The SIFC shall act as (i) Single Window for multi-domain cooperation in ‘Relevant Fields’ with GCC countries in particular and other countries in general for facilitation of investment and developing an enabling policy environment; (ii) prepare long-term road-map for growth, development and investment in the ‘Relevant Fields’, while capitalizing on low hanging fruit; (iii) enhance awareness of Pakistan’s latent potential in the ‘Relevant Fields’; (iv) improving ease of doing business by overcoming systemic/ bureaucratic hurdles and optimising horizontal-vertical synergy federation and provinces coordination and :(a) facilitating timely decision making and avoid duplication of effort; and (b) fast tracking investment and projects implementation.

SIFC will coordinate Pakistan’s Army assistance for some purposes as being done in other countries like China, Indonesia, etc.

The Apex Committee, Executive Committee and Implementation Committee shall hold meetings quarterly, monthly and fortnightly, respectively in order to monitor progress of each Sectoral Division.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023