Fozia Azam

The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) is working on setting up a Single Window Service Center to reduce regulatory barriers to foreign and domestic investment in Pakistan. The Centre – to be established under the Zero Time to Start Policy (ZTTS) – will register businesses through a single point by minimizing delay and simplifying the procedure, said Zulfiqar Ali, Director General Pakistan Regulatory Modernization Initiative (PRMI), while talking to WealthPK. He said the ZTTS policy had been devised by the Board of Investment under the Pakistan Regularization and Modernization Initiative.

“The Single Window Service Centre will conduct and complete the application process the same day with all the regulatory agencies involved to obtain necessary approval for starting a business,” he said.He was of view that the initiative will help facilitate business registration and encourage startups to launch ventures in Pakistan. Businesses would flourish when the businesspeople don’t need approvals from so many departments, which impedes smooth business activities in Pakistan, he added.

PRMI is an investment climate reform agenda to address regulatory challenges. It aims to remove the hurdles in doing business in Pakistan through a structured process for reviewing, reforming, and digitalizing the delivery of business registrations, licenses, and permits.The Centre will conduct the relevant Compliance Verification Process (CVP) with other regulatory agencies for any approvals related to the application. This policy envisages full digital compliance verification in future once the IT capacities and infrastructure are developed.

The initiative aims to reduce hurdles in registering any type of business in Pakistan, especially start-ups, and increase time efficiency by simplifying the procedures. Experts believe that facilitating investment, entrepreneurship, and business activities through the streamlined compliance verification processes will allow transparent, easier, and faster processing of authorizations for starting business operations.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk