Ease of doing business: LCCI, World Bank preparing recommendations

Chamber looking to help companies register conveniently

LAHORE: In a bid to change Pakistan’s narrative on foreign and local investment, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is currently engaged with experts at the World Bank in preparing a draft of recommendations for the government.

“Embracing these recommendations would significantly strengthen Pakistan’s position in the global ‘ease of doing business’ index,” said LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Hyder in an interview with The Express Tribune.

“The crux of preparing these recommendations is to create a systematic portal, in order to connect those eight government departments the investor has to deal with while registering a new company,” he said. “The focus will be on creating a one-window operation system,  which will protect the investor and compel departments to register and provide concerned facilities in a limited time.”

Pakistan currently ranks 138th in the global index of ease in doing business. In 2012, Pakistan’s position was at 105 among a total of 189 countries.“The ideal time for a company to get registered is ‘half a day’ whereas in Pakistan it takes almost 19 days to register a company,” informed Hyder.

Pakistan’s businessmen spend as much as 598 hours in a year out of the total 2000 working hours in paying 47 different taxes.  Pakistan is one of the worst countries and is ranked 171 in paying taxes. “Each time you pay a tax, it becomes an auditable document, why would any businessman opt to enrol in the tax net when he knows it’s a hurdle”, he asked.

“New Zealand registers around 47,000 new companies each year, whereas Pakistan registers around 4,500 new companies. Why does the government not make an SOP to streamline the procedures?” questioned Hyder.

“Only by facilitating the business community through innovative measures can bring back investors’ confidence in Pakistan,” he remarked.

“It is not rocket science, the data should immediately be sent to other concerned departments by the SECP; why should investors be made visit every office with separate paper-work?”

“We have a target to bring Pakistan on number 50 on the index by 2018,” Hyder said decidedly.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2015.

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