ISLAMABAD – American Business Council, which is one of the largest investorgroups in Pakistan, has labeled the country as an attractive option fornear term investment as well as a top priority for future investment.
The cost of doing business, however, has been highlighted as the biggestchallenge affecting business operations.
A perception survey was conducted by the American Business Council (ABC) inwhich over 59% of the respondents pointed out that the internationalperception of Pakistan had become better. It is shown an improvement of 2%over results from FY17-18.
However, 61% of the respondents said the business climate of Pakistan hadbecome worse when compared to a year earlier and 40% of the participantsfelt that it had become even more difficult to do business in Pakistan.
The survey allowed ABC members to rate their satisfaction on variouseconomic, regulatory and political factors that affected the performanceand growth of the business over FY18-19.
American Business Council (ABC) is one of the largest investor groups inPakistan with 65 members and a plethora of companies representing Fortune500 companies. It contributes a sizeable amount to the national exchequerevery year as direct and indirect taxes.
The business climate was rated on factors such as economy, implementationand consistency of government policies, political climate, and law andorder.
Of these factors, the economy and implementation of policies were rated asbeing unsatisfactory by over half of the survey participants and 75% of therespondents had marked increasing costs i.e. utilities, duties and taxes asbeing the biggest challenge affecting business operations adversely.
Over 90% of the respondents were optimistic about the long term (2+ year)economic and operating climate, which is a positive indicator.
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It also revealed the optimism of American Investors with over 40% of therespondents marking Pakistan being one of the many destinations for nearterm global investment plans and quite a few marking Pakistan as being atop priority for future investment.
Mr. Adnan Asad, President of American Business Council of Pakistan, said: “I am very optimistic about the future of the country. After a very longtime the country is spearheaded by an honest, committed and hardworkingleader.”
“The first year was geared towards correcting the course and puttingPakistan on track. The country had to pay for it by way of price hikes,inflation, and extremely high-interest rates,” he added.
“I foresee 2020 as a stable year with the economy settling down and thebusiness environment improving and normalizing. All economic indicatorsshow a positive and optimistic picture, law and order is at its best, thegovernment is striving to implement its policy of ‘Ease of DoingBusiness’,” said President ABC.
It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan has improved its ranking byjumping up 28 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index,reaching the 108th position. It had carried out six reforms last year thathelped improve its ranking from 136 to 108, according to the World Bank’sannual flagship report “Ease of Doing Business 2020”.
Pakistan is among the 10 economies that improved the most in ease of doingbusiness after implementing regulatory reforms.
