Govt giving due importance to local investors: BoI chief

LAHORE: Board of Investment chairman Muhammad Azfar Ahsan has said that the government is giving due importance to local investors.

Speaking at a meeting at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday, he said the satisfaction of local investors is key to attracting foreign investment.

LCCI president Mian Nauman Kabir, senior vice president Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and vice president Haris Ateeq also spoke on the occasion.

Azfar Ahsan said that there was a need to resolve problems in starting or registering a new business. The major infrastructural changes would be made in BoI for providing quality services to the investors, he said, adding that the BoI capacity has been increased.

The BoI is working on automation and one-window operations. In this regard, a desk of LCCI would be setup at the BoI office so that the problems of members could be resolved immediately.

The feedback of the business community would be given priority in all matters, he said.

Mian Nauman Kabir said that the business community is concerned over gradual decrease in foreign direct investment in the country.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan statistics, the net foreign direct investment in the financial year 2019/20 stood at around $2.60 billion, which came down to $1.86 billion in 2020/21.

During the first five months of the ongoing financial year (July to November 2021), the net FDI was just $710 million. Going at this rate, it would be even difficult to maintain the level of FDI achieved during the previous year.

The LCCI president said that in the first five months of the ongoing financial year, only three countries, China, The Netherlands and the US, contributed more than 60 per cent to the FDI inflows. It reflects a lack of diversification in the sources of investment in terms of markets.

“One can put the blame on [the] issues like law and order, macroeconomic instability due to [the] rupee devaluation, inflation and policy rate hike, political volatility and energy shortages for declining trend in the FDI inflows. We all know that these reasons will not be addressed or rooted out overnight. We have to find a way out, despite all these odds,” he added.

He also emphasised the need to manage the issues like inconsistency in economic policies, particularly related to taxation and the lack of effective integration with the regional and global economy. He said that there was a need of a pragmatic and multi-dimensional investment strategy, which should not only incentivise the local and foreign investors but also attract new investments across the diverse sectors of the economy.

There was a need to review old regulations and replace them with smart/prudent regulations for facilitating investors, the LCCI president said, adding that for facilitating trade, there was a need for reduction in cost and time taken for documentary/border compliance through combining documents.

According to the World Bank Doing Business Report, only five documents are required in Singapore for import/export, compared with 13 documents for exports and 11 for imports in Pakistan.

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