The Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) is tasked with establishing a legal and regulatory framework that enables public-private transactions, fostering private sector investment in public infrastructure and services. Recently, the PPPA enlisted Kearney, a consultancy firm with reputed global expertise, particularly in the Middle East, to identify potential projects for investment and develop strategies for their implementation. Kearney has already engaged with 15 federal institutions and identified 97 priority projects. The firm is also interested in supporting the privatization of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), enhancing the regulatory framework for public sector enterprises, and attracting more investors to Pakistan. This all sounds quite familiar, doesn’t it?
We also have the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), whose mandate is to attract investment into Pakistan with a vision of contributing to the country’s economic revival by significantly expanding investment from both foreign and domestic sources. The SIFC aims to draw investments from friendly countries—primarily in the Middle East—in targeted sectors through an empowered organization that acts as a ‘single-window’ platform for facilitation, improving the ease of doing business for potential investors in Pakistan’s economic revival. The SIFC was established to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, structural inefficiencies, and other obstacles that inhibit investment in Pakistan.
Similarly, many consultants and advisors have been hired in the past—and paid in hard foreign currency—to improve the performance of SOEs, privatize entities like PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills, and enhance the efficiencies of DISCOs, which the government has now decided to privatize. Then there are departments such as the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), mandated to improve the country’s exports. TDAP regularly holds and participates in international exhibitions, yet, despite GSP+ status, textile exports have declined. Likewise, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) is supposed to promote SMEs in the country, but de-industrialization has been occurring for the past couple of decades. The government has also conducted roadshows in Europe and China to attract foreign investment, but aside from spending valuable foreign exchange on these junkets, little of substance has been achieved. Despite spending millions of dollars on consultants, exhibitions, and roadshows, there is little to show for the money spent.
Unfortunately, every government department is eager to attract foreign investment but shows little interest in facilitating local investors. Listening to local investors’ problems, helping them navigate the bureaucratic maze, providing a level playing field with safe facilities comparable to those offered to foreign investors, and ensuring basic infrastructure for setting up industries—these are all neglected areas. Local investors don’t need foreign consultancy or dollar-funded consultants to persuade them to invest in Pakistan; they simply need to be heard.
The real issue is that every government seeks a quick fix, a magic solution. Instead of addressing inefficiencies, reducing bureaucratic interference, combating corruption, and hiring technocrats to do the job, new departments are created with overlapping scopes and mandates, which only increases inefficiencies and further complicates the investment environment. Moreover, the government isn’t focusing on improving the general socio-economic indicators of the country, such as the rule of law, where the law is equal for everyone and the life and property of every citizen are protected. Furthermore, the government needs to invest in basic infrastructure, such as strategic roads and highways that connect industrial cities and regions, and provide utilities like electricity and gas at competitive rates. Without this basic groundwork, no matter how hard the government tries to attract investment through advertisements, roadshows, or tax breaks, no company that conducts due diligence will invest in Pakistan.
Ahsan Munir
The writer is a freelance columnist.