ISLAMABAD: The government has taken strong issue with the way the World Bank calculated the Ease of Doing Business Index in the country, results of which were released in November last year.

Fareen Mazhar, an Executive Director-General at the Board of Investment (BoI) told a visiting World Bank team that 37 reform measures designed to facilitate the setting up of new business were not even looked at during the exercise, which considered only 4 out of 41 measures rolled out by federal and provincial governments in recent years. Taken together, the government clubs these measures as “the 100 days sprint”, meaning the time period it envisions should be required to obtain all approvals and utility connections for a new enterprise.

Ms Mazhar gave a detailed presentation to Annete Dixon, regional head of the World Bank, highlighting the initiatives of the federal and provincial governments to automate and reform the processes involved in each business indicator and stressed on updating and expansion of contributors’ list reviewing the flaws in the methodology and need for data correction.

Many reform measures overlooked in Ease of Doing Business Index

Heads of BoI of Punjab and Sindh were invited for the meeting with the World Bank Vice President who was accompanied by International Finance Corporation’s vice-president Snezana Stojanovic and other officials.

Punjab’s Secretary Planning and Development, Iftikhar Ali Sahoo shared reforms actions initiated by the provincial government which included automated land registration process in Lahore reducing the time taken from 56 days to 18 days and procedures from 7 to 4 days; reduction of time for getting construction permits from 60 to 21 days and automation and linkages of sub-registrar offices with the PLRA system.

He said that three mediation centres have been made functional at the district court Lahore and around 6,812 references resolved out of 10,637 references.

Chairperson BoI Sindh, Naheed Memon said the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was in the process of issuing a notification concerning reduction in connection time from 61 to 21 days. Sindh Building Control Authority will eliminate four procedures for obtaining construction permit to reduce its time from 60 to 32 days, she added.

Ms Dixon emphasised that parallel efforts are also required to improve the situation in other supporting areas like energy, infrastructure, security and particularly human development while also proposing a strong feedback mechanism for enhancing ease of doing business.

BoI Chairman Naeem Zamindar appreciated the efforts of the Bank for improving Pakistan’s business climate and emphasised that simplification in every area of business cycle is imperative to attract investment in the country.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2018