INP-WealthPk

Sindh undertakes speedy reforms to ensure ease of doing business

January 02, 2025

Ahmed Khan Malik

The Sindh government has introduced various reforms to ensure the ease of doing business by amending the regulatory framework as well as facilitating the businesses through various fiscal and tax incentives.

“The provincial government is committed to making the province an easy and competitive investment hub,” said Murtaza Syed, Director of Sindh’s Investment Department, while talking to WealthPK. He said the provincial government, with technical support and assistance from the World Bank, has embarked upon the reform agenda. Leading this effort is the Investment Department, which focuses on promoting investment across all sectors of the economy, facilitating local and foreign investors in the swift execution of their projects, boosting Sindh's international competitiveness, and contributing to socioeconomic development.

“The aim is to bring together initiatives and action on reforms, as taken by multiple provincial departments and agencies, to facilitate the ease of doing business in the province,” Syed noted. 

He said while aiming to improve the business environment, the Doing Business reform agenda also seeks to improve Pakistan’s ranking on the World Bank’s Doing Business benchmarks. Sindh has made a significant contribution to it, as Karachi’s contribution to Pakistan’s industrial sector is 65 percent and Lahore’s 35 percent. Sindh is currently pursuing 44 reforms across a range of indicators, aimed at registering property, enforcing contracts, dealing with construction permits, and starting businesses.

As part of these efforts, the provincial government has also formed the Sindh Investment Climate Improvement Cell, a dedicated unit formed under the umbrella of the Investment Department, for execution of reform agenda, as pursued by different departments under the larger action plan on business reforms supported by the World Bank to help implement these reforms at the federal and provincial levels. Murtaza said to ensure the ease of doing business, Sindh overhauled its regulatory structure in the past few months and made various interventions/reforms to improve the regulatory environment.

Various departments have been activated to facilitate businesses. These departments include Sindh Building Control Authority, Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, Sindh Environment Protection Agency, Board of Revenue, Energy Department, Excise & Taxation and a few other departments. He said the provincial government has also launched a comprehensive dissemination campaign on the mainstream and social media about the wide-ranging and quickest reforms.

The key achievements in the Doing Business domain include reducing the number of procedures to obtain construction permits from 15 to 7 and cutting the time to grant construction permits from 60 to 30 days. Time for completion certificates has also been reduced from 45 to 30 days. The Sindh Investment Department director said the condition of submitting three No Objection Certificates has also been abolished.

Credit: INP-WealthPk