ISLAMABAD: In association with the provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh, the Board of Investment (BoI) on Friday launched the ‘100 Days – Sprint-III’ to ‘Doing Business Reforms Plan’ aimed at facilitating businesses and improving the investment climate.

With the launching of the plan, BoI will now establish a doing business reforms secretariat, charged with the responsibility to ambitiously implement the reforms process initiated early this year to improve the country’s doing business ranking by 2019.

The BoI acts as a secretariat for the Steering Committee on Doing Business Reforms. The committee is chaired by the prime minister. The World Bank has been supporting the government as a business climate reforms partner.

Sprint-I and Sprint-II were the first two 100-days reform drives that were carried out under the steering committee in which various reform actions were implemented.

Speaking on the occasion, Adviser to Prime Minister on Trade, Industry, Textile and Investment, Abdul Razzak Dawood, emphasised that it should be the main objective of the BoI to expand the reforms to different cities.

He reiterated the government’s commitment to improve competitiveness by working for public infrastructure, increasing support for the development of the private sector, and reducing the regulatory and administrative burden on enterprises.

Dawood told media that improving the business environment is indispensible for the economy to grow and flourish, and by simplifying laws and regulations, many more firms and entrepreneurs will switch to the formal sector.

In the formal sector, workers have benefits like social security, pension and insurance coverage, while the government benefits from the taxes.

BoI Chairman, Haroon Sharif, explained the salient features of the new measures, and said that under ‘Sprint-III’, the board of investment and various government departments plan to implement 45 reforms action in different business indicators.

The private sector will be consulted at all levels from planning to implementation of these reforms, and BoI will ensure that private sector is its partner in this journey, he said.

He maintained that the ‘World Bank’s Doing Business’ ranking is based on a survey circulated to contributors from the private sector. The report measures eleven indicators – from laws, frameworks and procedures facilitating or hampering starting of an enterprise to others across the life cycle of a business.

FBR Chairman, Dr Jehanzeb Khan and representatives of Punjab and Sindh governments, and private sector attended this launching ceremony.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018