28 November 2004	Sunday	15 Shawwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Head of Resident Mission of World Bank in Pakistan John Wall on Saturday said that investment climate and macro-economic situation seems to be good only on papers as the country lacks proper implementation of policies.

He was speaking at a workshop on Improving Pakistan's Investment Climate World Development Report and Doing Business Dissemination here at the Planning Commission.

Almost all the speakers at the seminar were unanimous that lack of implementation of otherwise excellent policies was impeding the development growth in the country. Tendency of scrapping policies by new governments is also one of the factors of slow growth.

John Wall asked the government to immediate pay attention to speeding up litigation process and improving the quality of land records as these were hampering enforcement of contracts in the country.

Pakistan's court system is such that it took years to settle commercial disputes, he observed.

Though he appreciated that the present government had ensured continuity of policies because of which investment was also growing but it needed to maintain interest and exchange rates through tight fiscal and monetary policies.

Access to justice and improving the quality of judges are also necessary in this regard, he said adding that Pakistan should reduce the cost of doing business by further cutting down power and telecommunication tariffs and transportation cost.

Prime Minister's Advisor on Finance Salman Shah said that corruption was eating out Pakistan's growth rate by two per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) that could be corrected if economic growth level of Singapore was attained.

Quoting Amnesty International's recent report, Salman Shah said, Pakistan was lagging behind in the development growth because of weak governance.

The advisor appreciated Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's economic agenda which he spelt out in his address to the nation last Friday.

This is for the first time, he said, that any prime minister had given a vision for development and highlighted the need of exploiting Pakistan's strategic location to convert the country into a regional business hub.

The chairman, Board of Investment, Wasim Haqqi hold regional situation responsible for poor foreign direct investment in Pakistan even though the government had taken a number of measures to attract investment by liberalizing economy.

He, however, deplored that provinces still had not come up to the expectation in identifying areas of investment due to bureaucratic hurdles despite federal government's emphasis. Inspections up to thirty stages by different government departments in provinces are also vitiating conducive business environment, he said adding that despite different economic policies and opening up of investment sector, different public departments have failed to match the required pace.

He, however, appreciated the governments of Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif for unanimously pursuing the policies of deregulation, liberalization and privatization.

Wasim Haqqi was of the view that smuggling had been checked considerably by reducing duties - a development that was also encouraging open competition in the market.

Presence of a large number of retired government officers in different regulatory bodies are also the reason of slow execution as they could not understand the need of speedy decision-making, he said.

Werrick Smith, director, World Development Report in his presentation said high burden of taxes was hampering investment and in addition to normal taxes, the companies in Pakistan had to pay an extra amount of 16 per cent under different heads.

Sixty five per cent business concerns in Pakistan believed that investment could be increased by 30 per cent by improving policy predictability in the country. It took 395 days in Pakistan to implement an agreement, when in China the period is 250 days and Singapore 25 days. For property registration 45 days are needed, 17 days for customs clearance and three days to close a business in Pakistan, he said. To start a business, it took 25 days in Pakistan as compared to 65 days in India and 40 days in China, he said.

Saqib Sherazi, an industrialist was of the view that though economist and experts of the World Bank were very well read and experienced, their conclusions were often made on erroneous facts and therefore flawed. Their policies are often resented because it never provides money to sectors which needed it the most, he said.

Though investment is not going up, the consumers are driving the economy for the last four years besides our exports are static as these are not getting market access, he said.