The Japan International Cooperating Agency (JICA) and Board of Investment (BOI) on Friday signed MoU for strengthening investment climate in Pakistan to enhance the scope of work between the two countries. The agreement was signed by Takatoshi Nishikata, Chief Representative of JICA and Saleem Mandviwalla, Chairman, BoI.
Under the agreed plan, BoI and JICA will conduct a joint survey for improving the investment climate in Karachi that will cover industrial area around Port Qasim by identifying the problems and bottlenecks in attracting investment and propose action plans for their solution. The Survey will cover the issues of administrative regulations, permissions and authorisations on corporate activities focusing on living environment for foreign employees such as security, commutation, food and shelter, so on.
The scope of the survey will encompass industrial infrastructure project especially in transportation and power sector. The survey will open vistas of opportunities for foreign investors including Japanese businesses to invest in Pakistani market. Currently, JICA’s Investment Climate Improvement Advisor, Masao Nagase is working with BoI by suggesting ways and means for the improvement of investment climate in Pakistan. The Japanese investors submitted “Problem-Analysis & Solution Action” report to BoI in April which covers the requests from Japanese’s investors. To materialise these proposals, BoI is working to improve investment climate in Pakistan. In this connection, a team of experts were scheduled to visit Pakistan by the end of this year and JICA further intends to send Pakistani officials working in BoI on training to Japan for capacity building and enhancing their horizon regarding investment climate improvement in Pakistan.
