Secretary Cabinet Division Nargis Sethi expressed serious reservations over the proposal and stated that if acceded to it would take away the rights of relevant ministries; she added that investment in any sector has to be through the concerned ministry only. The Board maintains that the main impediment to attracting foreign direct investment is the lobbies operating within ministries.
Sources said that lobbies working for the interests of manufacturers and suppliers block all moves for new entrants into any industry/sector. He however revealed that a presentation on the matter would be shared with the Prime Minister soon and expressed confidence that the BOI would be granted powers to move the summary directly to the ECC.
Defending the proposed amendment, sources said the objective was not to take powers away from any ministry but rather to have BOI involvement which could facilitate the investment inflow. Sources gave the example of Yamaha motorcycles whose case file was pending for three years while other countries of the region made a decision in an average time of six months.
The investors will not wait for months only to find that the relevant ministry has yet to take up the file, we are only here to take the ownership of facilitating the investors, source clarified. They emphasised that the attitude towards investors has to change in the ministries and the general impression of Pakistan abroad needs to be improved to ensure enhanced FDI inflow.