As per a perception survey conducted by the American Business Council (ABC), over 59 percent of the respondents indicated that the international perception of Pakistan had become better.
This is a marked improvement over FY17-18 when 57 percent of participants rated it as being the same.
However, 61 percent of the respondents rated that the business climate of Pakistan had become worse when compared to the year before and 40 percent of the participants felt that it had become even more difficult to do business in Pakistan.
However, a positive indicator is that over 90 percent of the respondents were optimistic about the long term (2+ years) economic and operating climate.
The survey allowed ABC members to rate their satisfaction on various economic, regulatory and political factors that affected the performance and growth of business over FY18-19. The business climate was rated on each of the various factors influencing it; including economy, implementation and consistency of government policies, political climate, law and order.
Of these factors the economy and implementation of policies were rated as being unsatisfactory by over half of the survey participants and 75 percent of the respondents had marked increasing costs i.e. utilities, duties and taxes as being the biggest challenge affecting business operations adversely.
The survey also revealed the optimism of American Investors with over 40 percent of the respondents marking Pakistan being one of the many destinations for near term global investment plans and quite a few marking Pakistan as being a top priority for future investment.
"I am very optimistic about the future of the country, after a very long time the country is spearheaded by an honest, committed and hardworking leader," said Adnan Asad President American Business Council of Pakistan.
The first year was geared towards correcting the course and putting Pakistan on track. The country had to pay for it by way of price hikes, inflation and extremely high interest rates, he added.
"I foresee 2020 as a stable year with the economy settling down and the business environment improving and normalising. All economic indicators show a positive and optimistic picture, law and order is at its best, the government is striving to implement its policy of 'Ease Of Doing Business'," said President ABC.
What is needed is to be patient and provide all support to the government to succeed so that we are classified as a developing first world country, he added.
It may be mentioned here that ABC is one of the investor groups in Pakistan with 65 members which contribute a sizeable amount to the national exchequer every year as direct and indirect taxes.