Abdul Basit is the newly appointed Chairman of Punjab Board of Investment & Trade (PBIT).A graduate from Forman Christian College Lahore, he is also the Founder Chairman of the Big Bird Group of Companies which comprises of Big Bird Poultry Breeders (Pvt.) Limited, Grandparent Poultry (Pvt.) Limited, Big Bird Foods (Pvt.) Ltd, Big Feed (Pvt.) Limited, Pak Tek Associates, Green Nature Farms and APOTHEKE Technologies. The group has progressed rapidly and is a leader in their business field. He also serves as the Director, Punjab Agriculture & Meat Company, and Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority, Punjab.
BR Research: What is PBIT, and what is its task?
Abdul Basit: Punjab Board of Investment & Trade (PBIT) is a trade and investment promotion agency of the Punjab province, formed in 2009 with the key mission to make Punjab a premier investment destination. It works to facilitate the investors from the stage of exploring the opportunities and markets through policy advocacy and reforms. PBIT does not only help them to find opportunities and capitalise on the same but in the situation of conflict and difficulty PBIT wears the hat of a co-ordinator and the mediator. Though the department is still in its age of infancy, it has been quite successful in doing its job.
BRR: Can you explain your initiatives further?
AB: We provide businesses and investors one window operation, creating linkages with relevant departments associated with investment and bringing their facilities together under one roof to simplify things, which reduces the time to market products tremendously. Overall, you can say that PBIT acts as a catalyst in harnessing Punjab's distinctive potential.
We are also in liaison with the Board of Investment (BOI), which is a federal body to address issues common to both the federal and provincial governments, and avoid overlapping and redundancy.
Property disputes for investors are a major issue. So we are also now collaborating with another one of Government of Punjab's projects - Punjab Overseas Pakistani Commission - where our focus will be collaborating with the department on property disputes overseas investors or industrialists as well as introducing new investment avenues besides investing in property. We are also providing facilitation in regards to speedy gas and electricity connection for investors.
Local investors can be ambassador to the foreign investors. So apart from facilitating foreign investors, we also try to resolve the issues of local investors as well.
BRR: Take us to PBIT's journey through its six years so far? Where do you plan to take it from here?
AB: Set up in 2009, PBIT is a fairly young organisation, and the institution itself has been trying to fix its feet on the ground. We have worked on its institutional development all these years. At the same time, the organisation has remained focused on its promotion and facilitation role.
Our prime focus has been and will remain investment, and that too foreign direct investment into the province. However, it must be stressed here that FDI just does not come that easily especially in a country that is struck by terrorism, security situation, energy challenges and governance issues. In such a situation attracting FDI depends on the existing businesses that are the strongest advocates of investment in the international market as they are already sold on the country risk, market risk, and the cost of doing business. At the initial stages of attracting FDI, it is on us that we facilitate these existing businesses (local or foreign) so that they don't take their money out of the country.
It must be understood that our role is confined to advisory and facilitation; it's sort of like a marketing agency, and the projects are needed to be brought to PBIT and not the other way around.
BRR: How do you take private sector involvement in PBIT's initiatives?
AB: Investment is futile without taking private sector on board. Where the government departments are busy looking at macro level, private players are necessary for the execution and implementation of plans and projects at micro level. In ideal case scenario, private sector should be taken on board from the beginning to increase the potential of the progress and probability of materialisation. MoUs are just baby steps, and there is a lot more beyond that to happen.
BRR: Tell us about your latest investor aftercare initiatives?
AB: Though PBIT has been providing typical services what PAs are supposed to perform since its inception but the approach was reactive in nature. Now we are adapting to a proactive approach. We believe that the existing businesses are strongest ambassador and need to be taken care of very well. Without having a happy existing ambassador the dream of attracting new foreign direct investment would have very sleek chances of becoming true. New "The Aftercare Program" begins from reaching out to the existing foreign and local investors and hearing them out. PBIT teams go to the sites to meet with the management and discuss the challenges the business is facing and the opportunities they see and not able to capitalise on.
Next stage is to devise a strategy in consultation with the investor to take the stakeholders on board to resolve the issues and seize the opportunities. We have already started the campaign and plan to announce it at a prestigious ceremony chaired by the Honourable Chief Minister of Punjab this week. We are inviting the investors from all sectors of the economy. The government of the Punjab wants to send out the message to the business community that the private sector and the government can work together to bring investment into the country. The dinner hosted by the CM would provide an opportunity to stakeholders for interacting with each other in a congenial and friendly environment.
BRR: How do you see the Pakistan China Economic Corridor panning out for Pakistan?
AB: Apart from the apparent investment like road, infrastructure and energy projects in the PCEC realm, you would see investments coming in other sectors as Chinese investors are much interested in related industries like steel, cement, and building materials. Their ultimate goal would be to eventually move from having workshops and show rooms to having production of these building materials here in Pakistan.