Daily Times

During my research, I strode across the ranges of Karakorum, Himalayas, Hindukush, and the desert and beaches of Baluchistan, followed by focused interactions with national and international investment enthusiasts. The diagnostic study was an extension of the Pakistan China Industrial Cooperation Framework in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Office, Board of Investment, CPEC-ICPD. After having extensive exposure to the potential and challenges, I am excruciatingly obvious that the milepost on the way to economic self-reliance for Pakistan is to revamp the structure and operations of the Board of Investment -an agency formed to attract more and more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

How does FDI impact the host?

As a consequence of the Mexico-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement in 2005, Japanese automobile manufacturers spatially clustered their assembly plants in Mexico and this foreign investment amplified the employment rate manifolds in the Bajio region. The Republic of Maldives–a group of 1,190 islands in 20 atolls spread over 348 square miles in the Indian Ocean–sucked USD4.8 billion of foreign money during the last decade and now produces 28 percent of the total GDP and more than 60 percent of foreign currency earnings from foreign vacationers—arrive annually to admire the white-sand beach resorts-mostly built by international tourism companies. Similarly, President Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe claimed to march towards the attainment of a $12 billion volume in the mining sector by 2023 while signing the partnership agreement with Chinese company Prospect and Huayou for the development of the Arcadia Lithium Project. These case studies exemplify the positive economic impacts of FDI on the host countries.

FDI transforms unexploited resources into capital, stabilizes the exchange rate, and allows the transfer of technology in the form of new varieties of capital inputs that cannot be achieved through financial investments, loans, or trading goods and services. FDI promotes competition in the domestic input market, expedites the industrialization process, and during training in the course of operating the new businesses, it contributes to human capital development. Profits generated by FDI add to the corporate tax revenues of the host country.

FDI transforms unexploited resources into capital, stabilizes the exchange rate, and allows the transfer of technology.

My Action Research: The premises of my action research was to scale down the potential substrate which can be used to fabricate B2B models for FDI—particularly in GB, Chitral, Kaghan and Baluchistan—and to gauge the operative efficiency of public institutions and their policy frameworks, directly or indirectly involved in facilitating this corporate engagement. The respondents included 8 up-scale groups in real estate and tourism, 35 mining operators including three international consortiums working in Chitral and Baluchistan, the local incubators of more than a hundred potential sites for tourism resort development mapped in GB, Kaghan and Chitral, government officials, representatives from Chambers of Commerce (Lahore and Karachi), Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Employer Federation of Pakistan (EFP) and 2 national corporate groups.

Revamping Board of Investment: Precisely, revamping BOI means revisiting: i) its operational strategy; ii) Institutional framework and organizational characteristics; iii) prioritization strategies for investment attraction and generation; iv) monitoring and evaluation processes and tools; and v) approaches to cooperation and coordination with external partners. With subtle variations made pragmatically in line with domestic needs, these variables were used by OCED to evaluate the efficiency of 32 Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in 32 countries in Europe, The Middle East, North America and East Asia.

According to the statistics projected by the Board of Investment Pakistan, during the fiscal year 2020-2021, Pakistan hit USD 1802.5 million in terms of FDI from China (751.6), the UK (141), the USA (166), Hong Kong (157), Netherlands (96.9), Switzerland (61.7), UAE (115.7) and others. The figure is inconsequential for a country hosting a consumer market of 222 million people; strategically located at a location from where a cargo plane can access almost 48 percent of the world’s population in three-hour flying time; three highest mountain ranges out of the top five in the world with more than 500 hundred freshwater lakes, 28 rivers, more than 65,000 MW of identified hydel power projects and total potential of 100,000 MW, snowy peaks, lush green, the highest pastures and playgrounds of the world; a vast desert area for sand adventures; 1046-km long coastal line; 22.1 million hectares of cultivated land; globally unique cultures of Baluchistan and Kalash; the best quality base metals, precious gems and building materials of all types.

Keeping in view this enormous potential, therefore, the first milestone towards economic self-reliance is an empowered and efficient Board of Investment—structurally through constituting a Strategic Research Cell (SRC) at the very outset. The proposed SRC will develop collaborative and conclusive synergies between corporate groups, sectoral experts, financial consultants, FPCCI, EFP and academia. On the conceptual level, the proposed cell will assist BOI to look beyond its bureaucratic frame by providing a more liberated and practical view of business development.

Moreover, on the operational level, the proposed cell would aim to 1) conduct field diagnostic studies to identify potential projects in different sectors; 2) set sectoral preferences through prioritization filters 2) verify project perimeters through physical inspection and triangulation; 3) assess socio-economic and environmental impact; 4) identify functional frictions and risk assessment; 5) map and document the business plans in accordance with international corporate norms and UN regulatory standards for sustainability; 6) project-based, effective communication strategy for specific foreign investors in consultation with the diplomatic core to mitigate the impact of regional geostrategic clouds.

The legislative part of this revamp is to rationalize the Board of Investment Ordinance 2001 with extended clauses on enforcement and facilitation in the context of FDI-B2B projects. Currently, the organizational characteristic of BOI is more consultative in nature and the regulatory part is missing. Whereas, with few exceptions, the procedures followed by provincial executing agencies are primitively formal– contradictory to the entrepreneurial sentiment which is highly sensitive to uncertainty and demands inclusivity in public policy.

Pakistan is a country with countless blessings of nature. It has the 9th largest labor force in the world with almost 4 million youth attaining working age every year in Pakistan. It intersects major commodity trade corridors and supply chains of the region; offers a diverse investment portfolio including sectors like agriculture, tourism, mining, services, manufacturing, technology and renewable energy. To find a sustainable exit from the prevailing economic paralysis, Pakistan needs a coherent and methodical Board of Investment, capable to identify, analyze, document, and presenting this prodigious investment potential in a scientific manner.

The writer is an academic, columnist and public policy researcher.