Development of doing business reform plans: provinces to share policy initiatives with ministry by November

All provincial governments would share their policy initiatives with the Ministry of Finance by November 2015 for the development of provincial Doing Business (DB) Reform Plans to attract foreign investment in the country. Sources said on Wednesday that the decision has been taken in the last meeting of the focal persons (Federal and Provincial) of the Committee for Improving Pakistan's Ease of Doing Business Ratings, constituted by Finance Minister.
The meeting held to discuss progress on the development of provincial Doing Business (DB) Reform Plans was chaired by DG (IERU) and was attended by the focal persons from the relevant federal agencies and the provincial governments. After detailed discussion and deliberations, it was decided that the relevant information would be shared by the concerned federal and provincial focal persons with the IERU, by the first week of November 2015; to enable it to compile the full report on provincial reform plans for the DB Committee on a timely basis:
Firstly, the provinces of Punjab, KPK and Balochistan would to give their final DB Reform Plans, along with implementation timelines. The meeting of Working Group of KPK would be scheduled in the coming week. Secondly, the concerned federal and provincial agencies to give their written comments highlighting concerns on the donor agency's DB methodology, so that consolidated feedback could be developed by IERU for sharing with the WB DB team.
Thirdly, the relevant federal and provincial agencies would provide list of potential public sector contributors for the upcoming DB report data collection round for Pakistan. DG Implementation and Economic Reforms Unit (IERU) of the Finance Division stated that the proposed provincial DB reform plans should initially focus on short term reform measures that can be achieved in one year, after which medium term plans stretching over 2-3 years can be implemented for improving the investment climate in the respective provinces. He stressed upon development of a strong monitoring mechanism to track progress on the DB plans, for which the BOI should take the lead role in coordination with the provinces. He added that after the 18th Amendment, the provincial governments have to take the lead in driving reforms in their chosen DB indicators and push the agenda forward with an urgent emphasis on short term proposals.
The focal person from Government of Punjab Dr Amanullah informed that the DB Reform Plan for Punjab had been developed in consultation with the concerned provincial departments and was awaiting approval of the Chief Secretary. He informally shared a copy of the Plan with the IERU. The focal person from Government of Sindh - Azeem Uqaili presented the highlights of the DB Reform Plan for Sindh, which had earlier been submitted to the IERU, by the Sindh Board of Investment. He informed the meeting about the short, medium and long term reform measures envisaged by the Government of Sindh under the three DB indicators of dealing with construction permits, registering property and paying taxes covered under the DB Reform Plan.
The participants were of the views that that the World Doing Business mapping of different DB indicators for Pakistan did not accurately reflect the ground realities with respect to the procedures and timelines involved in carrying out processes under the various indicators. The Investment Climate Specialist (IERU) informed the meeting about the Video Conference held with the World Bank's Doing Business team based in Washington DC, where these issues were discussed in detail and concerns of different federal and provincial departments were raised. As a result of this, the WB DB team had agreed to also include public sector specialists working in different government agencies dealing with these indicators in its next round of data collection for the DB 2017 report, which was scheduled to start in February 2016. He stressed upon the concerned federal and provincial agencies to share their concerns on the WB DB methodology with the IERU in writing, on the basis of detailed information and questionnaires shared earlier with them, so that IERU could share the consolidated feedback on all DB indicators with the WB DB team. He also requested the concerned departments to share a list of potential public sector contributors for the upcoming DB report data collection round for Pakistan.
The representative of the Ministry of Textile Industry stressed upon the need for carrying out a broad based study on the different impediments to the growth of industry, especially the export oriented industry in Pakistan. This study should be based on consultation with the relevant industry associations so that a holistic investment climate improvement agenda could be developed. He raised concerns about the textile industry and how small and medium enterprises operating in that industry have to comply with a multitude of laws and different government agencies that visit them for a myriad of different reasons. This idea was also supported by other participants and it was decided that this concept would be shared with the Doing Business Committee in its next meeting, for its perusal.
The representative of Government of KPK updated the meeting on progress of development of DB Reform Plan for KPK. He informed that the provincial working group had been notified and had held its first meeting. He informed that KPK DB Reform Plan would focus on bringing improvements in the three DB indicators of dealing with construction permits, registering property and paying taxes. He went on to highlight the important initiatives being taken by the provincial government in improving the Ease of Doing Business under these three areas. The IERU representative requested that meeting of the provincial working group including the Federal Government agencies be called at the earliest, under the chairmanship of the provincial Chief Secretary so that the DB Plan for KPK could be finalized, sources added.