Government has directed all ministries and their allied departments and the regulator bodies to put their policies, guidebooks, filing of applications, specimen documents, online tracking system and online complaint management system on their respective websites before the start of next financial year.
An official source said that the government plans to announce major incentives for starting new businesses in the budget for the next financial year. The source added that the government wants to reduce the time taking process for starting new businesses because this budget is to be an election-year budget.
The source said that the cabinet division issued directives to all ministries and regulators to improve their e-readiness in mid-April and the final deadline for completing the tasks is set at June 30, 2017. The government is also working on e-commerce policy and rules which would be unveiled before the start of next financial year.
Government wants to improve the country’s ranking in the international ‘ease of doing business’ index. This step will also attract more foreign direct investment, especially after the completion of early harvest projects under CPEC, the source added.
The international financial institutions (IFIs) have pointed out to the government that Pakistan’s poor e-readiness was affecting the investment flows in different sectors. They stressed that improvement in the management of official websites could lead to increase in investment in the construction sector.
It is important to mention that the government established an e-government directorate in 2002 to improve the online presence of departments but even after 15 years, the websites of ministries, their subsidiary departments and most of the regulators provide scant information about their working and functions.
Officials of different ministries said that the policies, guide books, specimen letters would be placed on their respective websites by May end. However, they expressed that the online application, tracking and complaint management system will require time as standard operating procedures and other requirements were to be looked into.
