Pakistan's ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Index has consistently gone down since the PML-N took over power in 2013 - from 105 in 2012 to 128 in 2015 to 147 in 2018 among 190 countries. The government implemented a countrywide ease of doing business reform strategy in 2016 with time bound measures to strengthen the business climate and foster private investment. Board of Investment (BoI), with the lead role, failed to implement the strategy.
BoI was headed by Miftah Ismail, currently the Finance Minister, from January 2014 till July 2017. He was replaced by Naeem Y Zamindar, from the private sector, effective November 2017. In April, 2018 a two-member World Bank team was briefed by BoI that 85 percent of the reform actions planned for improving business climate were met.
The meeting of BoI Board - the top decision making forum responsible for taking major business-related decisions chaired by the Prime Minister has not convened a single meeting of the Board during the last five years. Foreign direct investment (FDI) stood $1.698 million in 2013-14 and rose to $2.237 in (July-April) 2017-18. China and UK remained the top two sources of FDI with a focus on power, construction and financial business sector.
FDI improved marginally - by $539 million during the past five years - attributed to a lack of interest by the Prime Minister, who did not call any meeting of the BoI board during the past five years though he engaged in several foreign trips with BoI chairman. According to an official of BoI, Pakistan is now targeting to position itself amongst the top 50 countries in Ease of Doing Business index in the next three years.
He said that this is possible if the country continues with reforms. Improving Pakistan's business climate was one of the four core pillars of the International Monetary Fund's three-year Extended Fund Facility. In all its reports, IMF highlighted the need to strengthen the business climate and suggested specific measures to Pakistani authorities to improve business climate.
Recently, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi tasked the BoI to coordinate with the provincial governments for the purpose. According to website of Board of Investment, only one Bilateral Investment Treaty (BITs) was signed with Bharain in 2014 during the five years of the PML-N government; though investment inflow from Bharain remained small. There are a total 48 BITs signed with various countries.
BoI officials told this correspondent that due to the general trend to challenge agreements in the courts other countries are hesitant to sign BITs with Pakistan. Talks on signing BIT between United States and Pakistan remained stalled during the past five years.
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