April 4, 2003	Friday	Safar 1, 1424

ISLAMABAD, April 3: The government has decided to reconstitute 27-member new policy board for the Board of Investment (BoI) within this month to accelerate the local and foreign investment.

“The new board, to be announced within this month, will have 27 members, including 10 federal ministers and four chief ministers,” said BoI chairman Waseem Haqqie. The previous board was comprising 25 members.

Talking to Dawn here on Thursday, he said the policy board, to be headed by the prime minister, will also have 13 other members (four each from Punjab and Sindh), one each from NWFP, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, special areas and the Overseas Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said these 13 members would be taken from the private sector and would include those prominent businessmen and industrialists who have a success story in sectors like information technology, telecom, oil & gas, power, agriculture, small and medium enterprises and the engineering sector,” the BoI chairman said.

He said the prime minister, minister for privatization and investment and the chairman BoI would be the ex-officio members of the new board.

According to an official working paper made available to Dawn, the policy board for the BoI would act as an apex body for deciding the investment policies and promotion. The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCoI), headed by the finance minister, will be approving private sector investment proposals and resolve implementation issues.

The Private Sector Advisory Council with representatives from the chamber of commerce and trade and industry bodies and leading entrepreneurs, multinationals and financial institutions, etc., will provide a forum to the private sector to articulate their views and recommend measures to improve investment policies and environment.

The provincial committees on investment (PCOI), headed by the chief ministers, will develop closer linkages between the BoI and the provinces in order to provide better facilities to the investors and efficiently resolve implementation issues facing the investors.

The BoI, working paper said, was expected to operate as an autonomous body with adequate management, administrative and financial powers. The board will be assigned a broad based functions, including the formulation and implementation of the national investment policy.

The BoI, it said, would be vested with the mandate to provide effective one-window service to the investors and to negotiate and finalize agreements for protection with other countries.

And the prime minister will hold a regular meeting of the BoI to ensure that investors do not face problems every now and then.