Punjab offers federal govt digitisation support

CM terms industrialisation fastest route to economic growth

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Monday offered technical assistance to the federal government for digitising business processes.

The offer came as a committee led by Prime Minister's Adviser on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan met the CM to discuss reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business.

The leaders reviewed measures to promote investment, facilitate businesses and accelerate industrial growth.

According to a statement, the federal reform committee praised the Punjab government's initiatives to attract investment and improve the business environment.

The adviser said Punjab had already implemented several measures recommended by the committee to facilitate businesses and promote industry. He said the work of the CM and her team was reflected in the province's development projects.

The CM said industrialisation was the fastest route to economic growth and stressed the need to promote local industries to generate employment.

She said the provincial government was revamping skills development programmes under a unified framework, with sector-specific training yielding positive results.

The chief minister said Punjab was expanding its tax base and improving revenue collection without imposing new taxes.

She added that the government was working to facilitate businesses while taking ground realities into account.

She said the province had completed cluster mapping and planned to develop hubs for cottage industries. The government was also promoting livestock farming to increase meat exports and encouraging young people to start businesses through the Asaan Karobar Finance Scheme.

Officials informed the meeting participants that the scheme had provided Rs70 billion in interest-free loans, supporting 112,000 businesses.

They also highlighted progress under the province's eBiz platform, which provides 437 services through 28 departments under a single-window system. More than 210,000 applications were being processed through the platform, officials said.

Under the Maryam Ki Dastak initiative, 4.5 million digital service deliveries to citizens have been completed. Lengthy documentation requirements for various services have been reduced to a few essential documents.

The chief minister expressed confidence in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's commitment to promoting investment and efforts of the Special Investment Facilitation Council.

Earlier, Public offices across Punjab had been directed to fully transition to a digital filing system by July 1 as part of a government-led administrative reform aimed at eliminating manual paperwork and reducing operational costs.