PBIT sets up desk to facilitate entrepreneurs

Discusses legal concerns, policy advocacy and incentives with start-ups

LAHORE: The Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) announced the soft launch of a specialised entrepreneurship desk during a meeting with a group of young entrepreneurs at its office on Friday.

The specialised entrepreneurship desk will work closely with young entrepreneurs to facilitate and help them on various fronts as they launch their businesses.



The participating companies included Sabzi.pk, which is an online marketplace for farmers and consumers. It aims to provide people with quality vegetables on their doorstep.

Secondly, Dielicious, which is a weight-loss service programme, provides customised meals to the target market.

The third participant was Pak Straw - an innovation-based company, which aims to provide a device that can filter 1,500 litres of contaminated water at minimal cost.

The last company was Repair Desk, which is an IT-based company that has launched integrated POS & ERP software for record keeping that would be the foremost software to be used in Pakistan.

The meeting focused on the products and services provided by these start-up companies as well as the issues that are being faced by the entrepreneurs while setting up their businesses.

Among key challenges that were discussed were legal concerns, policy advocacy and incentives for start-ups and issues at the government level.

PBIT CEO Jahanzeb Burana assured them that he would raise their issues at right forums. Being a premier investment promotion agency of Punjab, he said, the PBIT would facilitate the young start-ups in overcoming the issues in all possible ways.



PBIT is likely to undergo a restructuring process as the newly appointed CEO strives to focus on long-term strategic initiatives, thereby shuffling and creating new divisions.

Burana was of the view that before inviting local and foreign investors, there was a need to reorganise the PBIT, which would enable them to properly pitch their ideas to international investors.

Speaking at an earlier event, he said there was tough competition at the global level and emerging as well as developed economies had set up investment promotion agencies to run advertisements for their country.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2017.

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