Daily Times

The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has appreciated the significant improvement in the foreign remittance processing time and growing engagement of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) high-ups with the key stakeholders.

The OICCI on Tuesday released the results of its annual Remittance Survey 2021, conducted in May amongst foreign investors who are members of OICCI. The annual survey was conducted to measure the progress made during the past one year in terms of facilitating foreign remittances.

A significant 94 percent of the survey respondents informed that dividend remittances are now being approved by the central bank within 3 months of the applications. Around 90 percent of respondents indicated that technical fee is also being remitted within three months. OICCI President Irfan Siddiqui said that foreign investors have also highly appreciated the numerous ease of doing business initiatives of the SBP during the past one year. The SBP’s modernisation initiative, inter-alia, enabled over two-third of the respondents to track on-line their remittance application, he said.

The foreign investors have also recommended a few areas for further improvement by SBP including giving more autonomy to authorised dealers in making routine remittances, allowing hedging of major foreign exchange payments like dividends, royalty, and technical fees and further simplifying the foreign exchange manual by making it sector wise. The OICCI, a research-based organisation, conducts numerous surveys on matters affecting foreign investors in Pakistan and shares key findings with relevant government authorities to facilitate existing and potential foreign investors.