‘Peshawar can become best city for businesses’

Regulatory reforms undertaken by the provincial government could bring Peshawar at par with some of the best cities in the country for ease of doing business.

This was stated by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment (K-PBOI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hassan Butt on Wednesday during a virtual dialogue on the ‘Business environment in K-P and Challenges’. The session had been organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

Butt said that the provincial government is pursuing a triple-helix model where the private sector, the government and academia work together on provincial policies.

“We have [set up] an ease of doing business portal with 16 services available online,” he said, adding that public-private partnerships are also being strengthened in the province.

Further, he said that efforts are being made to attract large enterprises from other parts of the country, particularly Punjab and Sindh, to invest in the agriculture sector of K-P.

SBP Financial Stability Department Director Javaid Ismail said that development of a secure transaction registry has been approved by the SECP which is expected to help raise funding.