Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has stressed upon the need of properly interlinking all business dealing government departments to facilitate starting new businesses in Pakistan.

Commenting on the World Bank’s Doing Business in Pakistan 2010 report,  Mr.Zahid Maqbool, President, ICCI said that it should be an eye opener for the government as it has pointed out many weak areas, which are hampering the growth of business activities in the country. 

He said getting a company registered in Singapore takes just 30 minutes as Singapore has closely interlinked all business dealing public departments. The result is that a business entity is registered at one location by coordinating with all relevant departments.

However, he said that in Pakistan a businessmen has to interact with many public departments at different locations to start and conduct business, which is a very cumbersome process and needs to be streamlined urgently.

He said that government has brought some improvements in few areas e.g. SECP and FBR are now providing online registration facility. But there is an urgent need of creating proper awareness in entrepreneurs as many of them are still unaware about positive initiatives of the government.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool said that this is the age of technology and government should facilitate businesses by automating all documentary procedures. Especially land record should be computerized throughout the country so that investors could purchase land for business without any hesitation.

He said that the country badly needs to establish speedy business courts because investment of millions of dollars, especially of oil exploration and production companies is stuck up due to business disputes. He was of the view that setting up of speedy business courts will boost up the confidence of local and foreign investors and bring in more investment in the country.

Businessmen said that government should take advantage of WB Doing Business in Pakistan 2010 report and try to take measures to remove all those constraints mentioned in the report so that business could grow smoothly and Pakistan could improve its international ranking for attracting more investors.

They said that despite controversial rankings in some areas, the report has ranked Pakistan at 89 out of 183 countries which shows that our country is still far better than many countries for doing business. It should improve the confidence of investors to look for Pakistan as a better place for investment, they added.