PRMI reforms to ensure ease of doing business in more effective manner: Razak

The advisor said reforms were focused around reduction of compliance burden of businesses

ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood Monday said Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative (PRMI) was a larger scale exercise for reforms being undertaken by the government in order to ensure ease of doing business in a more effective manner.

He said this while chairing the third meeting of Steering Committee on PRMI here in Board of Investment (BoI).

The advisor said reforms were focused around reduction of compliance burden of businesses on one hand while improving the effectiveness of regulatory regime on the other.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, BoI Chairman Atif Riaz Bokhari, Commerce Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, provincial representatives and other stakeholders from public and private sectors attended the meeting.

Razak Dawood underlined that the reforms efforts would make life easier for the business community and improve the oversight mechanisms of the government as well.

Talking about the progress on different decisions and targets, he appreciated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on recent steps to simplify the licensing regime of local government.

He said these activities would not only facilitate the SME sector but also help the growth of business activities in a more transparent and efficient manner.

The advisor encouraged all provinces and regions to adopt business friendly initiatives of each other and increase the pace of activities to achieve concrete results for the SME sector within the given time frame.

He said different stakeholders, including the industry representatives shared their suggestions on the regulatory environment.

Razak Dawood assured that the suggestions from industry would be duly considered in order to ensure a meaningful review of the regulatory regime and introduction of consequential reforms.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain talked about the different approaches to undertake the intended reforms drive of the government.

He said a sector-wise approach would come at a later stage, which would enable us to have a deeper understanding of impediments to our competitiveness.

He added that the provinces and local governments needed to proactively engage with businesses for meaningful changes in the administrative and regulatory frameworks in favor of businesses.

The agenda of the third meeting of steering committee was to review the progress on the decisions taken in the last meeting, discuss the developments regarding Local Government Licensing Regime by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad Capital Territory, and examine the steps undertaken by provinces on regulatory frameworks and get feedback from industry representatives on the regulatory impediments in different sectors.

The strategy on way forward with action plan and measurable milestones was also discussed in the meeting.

To reduce the compliance burden on businesses, especially those in the SME sector, the prime minister had approved the launch of PRMI and established a steering committee for implementing the PRMI activity and designated the BoI as the lead agency.

Over its lifetime, the PRMI activity would be implemented in a number of stages, which included the mapping of existing Registrations/Licenses/Certificates/Other Permits (RLCOs), analysis for identifying unnecessary /redundant /cumbersome processes, elimination of non-essential RLCOs (also called Regulatory Guillotine), simplification /modernization of procedures relating to essential RLCOs and their automation through an online platform.

At the end of the meeting, the advisor directed the BoI to ensure meetings of steering committee on regular basis in order to fast-track the progress on different activities.