ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday launched an investor-focused and interactive Online Work Visa Application for investors so that they can get visas without delays.
The prime minister said that the new service would lead the Board of Investment (BoI) towards automation of investment procedures.
The initiative of visa on-line would eliminate unnecessary delays in providing services and support to investors and help improve work efficiency of the BoI, he said.
Mr Gilani asked the BoI to bring to his notice immediately any hindrance in the process of new investment whether public or private. All measures must be taken to create a conducive environment so that pace of local and foreign investment could be accelerated. The facility of online registration through BoI website and allocation of tracking number to users after submission of required information is a positive step to attract investment, Mr Gilani said.
He said while revamping and updating the Investment Policy 1997, it should be ensured that it is made more practicable by involving the private sector, the provincial governments and all stakeholders.
Explaining the online work visa, BoI Chairman Saleem H. Mandviwalla said it would lessen the hassle of long documentation and delays in issuing a visa to investors and they would submit and process visa application online and would also be able to view the application’s status as it is changed by the BoI staff.
In this way, investors can work legally in Pakistan for their companies that are the subject of the investment.
They can travel freely and stay on a prolonged basis with unlimited two-year visa extensions. He further said that soon the Ministry of Interior and other stakeholders involved in the visa process would be linked to the visa online service of BoI to provide the visa immediately.
The features of the new service being launched by the BoI include online services to foreign investors for application submission and processing of business visa applications; new branch; airport entry pass; real-time updates about application status; online discussion forums to help investment seekers and investors; registration of local businesses in online directory; and providing matchmaking services to foreign investors and local businesses.
Earlier, the prime minister chaired the fifth meeting of the Board of Investment and stressed that the BoI should give special attention to bridge the gap between policies in the books and their implementation in practice. The role of private sector in the public-private dialogue and these sectors advisory groups, he added, must be facilitated as per policy of the government to promote public-private partnership.
He was pleased to learn that provinces had been given representation on the board of BoI at the chief secretary level and on the future executive committee at a senior level.
The board members were informed that under the public-private dialogue (PPD), three advisory boards for selected sectors had been constituted for bifurcation of investment sectors.
The designated people were responsible for launching and steering the public-private dialogue, identify target and priority sectors for public private dialogue, create one sector advisory board for each target and priority sector, create one sector office for each sector advisory board under consultative wing of PPD, create one division office for each target sector under implementation wing of PPD and to check the flow of investment in assigned sectors.
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