Editorial

Doing business in Pakistan

Cutting red tape encourages entrepreneurship, generates economic growth and creates jobs.

Editorial November 03, 2013

paying attention to the ease of doing business in pakistan is not just some academic idea concocted by economists in developed countries it has real world consequences for the country and its people illustration jamal khurshid

Over the past six years, the people of Pakistan have had to suffer through moribund economic growth while living through a period of high inflation. Over that same period, the World Bank’s Doing Business Report now informs us that Islamabad has introduced no reforms at all to make it easier to do business in Pakistan. The near-perfect correlation between these two factors is not a coincidence. Economic growth requires an enabling environment, which is the job of governments to create. The previous government was plainly not interested in undertaking any meaningful reforms on that front. And while we remain optimistic, the odds appear to favour the Nawaz Administration following suit. The PML-N may be pro-business, but it also suffers from a serious flaw: the party leadership has a tendency to expect extraordinary individual efforts to substitute for institutional reform. Such an approach is barely suitable for running a small family business. It is disastrously unsuited for running the sixth largest country in the world.

Paying attention to the ease of doing business in Pakistan is not just some academic idea concocted by economists in developed countries. It has real world consequences for the country and its people. Take paying taxes, for instance, where Pakistan is ranked 166 out of 183 countries by the World Bank, and a category where our ranking has slipped almost every year for the past six years. The average business in Pakistan must make 47 separate payments for taxes, a process that takes an average of 577 man-hours. Is it any wonder that most Pakistani business owners do not want to pay their taxes? And here is a figure that should shock the energy-focused Nawaz Administration: Pakistan ranks 175^th in the world in terms of getting an electricity connection, an absolutely appalling ranking. It may seem trivial, but cutting red tape matters. It encourages entrepreneurship, generates economic growth and creates jobs. And it has the added virtue of reducing the cost of running the government. We can only hope that the current government does a better job at improving business conditions than their predecessors.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2013.

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COMMENTS (5)

Syed Khurram Shahid | 10 years ago | Reply

Goldman sachs in search of the next set of high growth economies coined the term N-11 to describe the 11 most populous countries beyond bric nations.

Out of the 11 countries which includes Bangladesh, Eygpt, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philipines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam.

Pakistan ranks in the upper half of the N11 Group on the Ease of doing business and is ranked 2nd in this group based on the protection of investors according to World Bank. (Source Un Dept of Social Economics), World Bank, CIA Fact Book etc

So gauging Pakistan business environment by looking at one particular factor in isolation in not a correct reading so i urge the readers to rank Pakistan relative to the regional economies and i am sure you will be surprised that Pakistan surpasses most of the talked economies in many respects.

Jeena Javid | 11 years ago | Reply For a country that has Taliban written all over itself which major company would want to do business in Pakistan? Pakistan has huge talent in engineers and other fields, most major companies like GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, YAHOO, MICROSOFT would open a campus there instantly but the security condition's are poor where the Government are in capable and the Pakistani people don't care. So who you may query suffers the most our young men and women who come out of our Universities as long as the Taliban are allowed to cruise the streets with ease we suffer. India, Bangladesh and China jump right in to fill the void. Most of these companies are willing to come the question is how bad do we want foreign business to come to Pakistan!!

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Yusuf | 11 years ago | Reply

Almost Eighty Percent of our Taxes comes in form as Witholding Tax so Why we are made to file an Income Tax Returns??? Citizens over Sixty do not get Retirement Return yet the are required to pay Tax so Bureaucracy, Public Employees and Armed Forces over Sixty get their Pension and Retirement Fund, Is it Fair on part of those Retired Tax Return Filers??? Being a Citizen means there is No Direct Benefit for being Pakistani over SIXTY, Is it FAIR?? Kindly Include us in our retirement, give direct benefit for those who file Income Tax Return.

vaticancity | 11 years ago | Reply

@Dhaka totally agree, I want to move to Bangladesh and see what all the fuss is about, everyone is talking about Bangladesh now. Free education, friendly people who actually help each other if they can in doing business properly.

Dhaka | 11 years ago | Reply

Business and pakistan does not go together.We are leading in all fronts against pakistan with the help of India and China.

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