Enabling business environment plays a pivotal role in attracting domestic and foreign investment. The concept of Ease of Doing Business has gained unprecedented importance in the recent past. The Doing Business Index, started in 2003, basically measures how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a business when complying with relevant regulations. Pakistan started DB Reforms process in 2016. The DB Reform Strategy launched in 2016 encompasses a set of comprehensive reform actions at both the federal and provincial governments’ level.
Due to the reforms efforts by the federal and provincial Governments, Pakistan has improved its ranking from 148 out of 189 countries to 144th out of 190 economies for 2017 on the Word Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Index. It was included among the ten countries, which were termed the most improved economies in 2015/16 in areas tracked by Doing Business. The Federal and Provincial Governments are continuously pursing the assigned targets for further streamlining, reducing the processes and time period involved in each business indicator. However, Pakistan’s ranking in some of the business indicators is not improving despite hectic efforts at each level.
In order to share the reforms taken and data recorded by the government departments with contributors of World Bank Doing Business report, business community, regulators and to apprise all relevant segments about various reforms and initiatives undertaken by the federal and provincial governments, BOI in collaboration with Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit (PMDU) and Finance Division and Provincial Governments organized two a Seminar / Workshops one in Karachi and one in Lahore The seminars focused mainly on four business areas i-e getting construction permits, contract enforcement, starting a business and registering property.
The seminars were attended by government agencies, regulators, leading businessmen, consultancy, and law firms, existing and future contributors of the Doing Business Report.