According to Saquib Fayyaz Magoon, Acting President of FPCCI, one of the biggest problems with Pakistan’s ability to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) is the lack of a centralized, up-to-date, comprehensive database of Pakistani businesses. As for the initiatives proposed by the Board of Investment (BoI), FPCCI’s main demand is the establishment of a Pakistan Business Portal. He went on to say that while it’s encouraging to see BoI hard at work on the portal, FPCCI is insistent that it be introduced with input from the business sector and given top priority.
The only method to permanently fix the country’s current account deficit (CAD) and trade imbalance, according to Saquib Fayyaz Magoon, Acting President of the FPCCI, who emphasized that the top organization is concentrating on policy advocacy in foreign direct investment (FDI), industrialization, and exports.
The most significant concern for international investors in the nation, according to the acting head of the FPCCI, is the fluctuating value of the rupee, which has led to a significant decline in the value of foreign assets and made them practically unprofitable. Furthermore, foreign investors and multinationals are discouraged from investing or reinvesting in Pakistan due to constraints on the outside repatriation of profits.
As per FPCCI’s request, Secretary BoI has selected Nadeem Bashir, Director General of Investor Facilitation, to serve as the organization’s point person at BoI.
Mr. Sohail Rajput, who is the Secretary of the Board of Investment (BoI) in Pakistan, said the distinguished gathering at the headquarters of the supreme body that the economy has shown signs of stabilization in the past year, indicating that the policies pertaining to the economy are heading in the correct path. The improvement in the situation, he said, was due to the government’s stringent fiscal discipline and adherence to the IMF-SBA’s conditionalities.
The establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), according to Dr. Sohail Rajput, has begun to increase investor trust in the country and offers investors a one-stop solution. During his presentation to the FPCCI Office Bearers, he discussed the Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative (PRMI), a program that has been greenlit by the government and will simplify the issue of NOCs and licenses in the country by centralizing the procedure.
The idea was put forward by Zaki ijaz, VP of the FPCCI, to establish Business Facilitation Centers in every major city in Pakistan. This would centralize all of the government’s services for investors and businesses. He went on to say that this is how the business community will actually benefit from one-window operations.
One of the major obstacles that both international and domestic investors find unacceptable, according to Aman Paracha, VP of the FPCCI, is the absence of consistency in economic policy. Vice President of the FPCCI, Ms. Qurrat Ul Ain, voiced her deep worry that women make up less than 1% of all entrepreneurs in the nation and questioned how any nation can develop when more than half of its citizens are discouraged from pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors.