Image amelioration for the best investment offer.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

Perception is stronger than reality. Pakistan has been presented as an extremely insecure country in the Western media for a while. Even in Hollywood movies, terrorists during interrogation by the law enforcement agencies are asked whether they got training in Pakistan. It is about time that the true image of Pakistan was presented. Optimism for doing business in Pakistan needs to be highlighted.

Pakistan is a country full of opportunities for the business leaders from across the world. The Board of Investment (BoI) needs to play a proactive role in terms of image-building of Pakistan in the business world. Myriads of endeavors were made by the erstwhile governments to attract the multinational companies from across the world but to no avail. The PTI-led government needs to ensure that the multinational companies already working in Pakistan are facilitated as per the law of the land, however, massive efforts are required to attract more multinational companies since there are opportunities galore.

Since security plays a vital role in the business, the BoI needs to chalk out a policy framework in cooperation with the relevant ministries so that a wholesome strategy may surface. There is an urgency due to the economic health of the country to develop pre-emptive measures to manage the direct and indirect impact of the security situation. Terrorism poses a threat to businesses in many countries. Security concerns are not restricted to only Pakistan rather it is a global phenomenon. Pakistan has made tremendous progress in terms of security particularly since 2013.

Way back in 2003, Interior Minister told a foreign delegation comprising multinational companies that the government would install surveillance cameras at strategic places in all the four provincial capitals and Islamabad. Cameras were also installed at main commercial centers, parks, diplomatic enclave, highways etc. Such measures did work to some extent, however, an enormous work is yet to be done to bring the multinational companies to Pakistan.

Karachi, the economic hub of Pakistan, with the population of over 20 million needs to be developed and the multinational companies must be invited to invest in the metropolis in addition to other cities of Pakistan such as Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore, Faisalabad etc. Security in Karachi has improved manifold over the period of last five years with the exception of trivial crimes. The menace of crime has been controlled...