*LAHORE: *Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman, Naeem Y. Zamindar believesPakistan can achieve a ranking among the top fifty of World Bank’s ease ofdoing business index.
In an interview to *Nikkei Asian Review, *Mr. Zamindar said the governmentintends to achieve this mark of being in the top 50 countries in WorldBank’s ease of doing business index by 2020 from its present ranking of147th.
Talking about the seven special economic zones (SEZs) being setup underChina-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Risalpur, Sialkot, Karachi and otherplaces, he said most of the land had already been sold by the government.
He added the government wanted to simplify procedures for registeringbusinesses and making land purchases easier.
The BOI chairman claimed it previously took 20 days to start a business inPakistan and proclaimed it only took a meagre four hours now.
Mr. Zamindar said another nine new SEZs will be established alongside CPECand talks were currently in process with companies based in Malaysia, Chinaand Italy.
He believes the cost of doing business would go down due to cheaper gas andpower. Talking about the SEZs, Mr. Zamindar said there is more to it thanjust factories.
He shared 30 percent of the area would be allotted to hotels, conventioncenters, vocational training institutions and restaurants.
Chairman BOI, said bringing the provincial and federal governments on onepage was a huge challenge since ruling parties had different views at bothlevels.
He said, “We set up the steering committee with the prime minister andchief ministers, which reviews all progress and bottlenecks.”
BOI chairman said Pakistan need more investment in manufacturing sector andwould extend invitation to IT and telecom companies like SoftBank andDocomo.