PESHAWAR, Apr 19 (Alliance News):KP Caretaker Minister for Industries, Commerce and Technical Education, Adnan Jalil has termed restructuring capabilities and streamlining of the public sector processes as keys to ease of doing business in the province.
He was speaking at the Meeting of the National Network of Economic Thinktanks-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chapter organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here the other day, said a press release issued on Wednesday.
He informed that restricting human resources in TEVTA had so far resulted in a saving of Rs 2.6 million monthly. He said that financial and power constraints faced by the caretaker government would prevent the delivery of relief to the business community.
Jalil said that the business community was struggling to survive in an unbalanced environment and stressed the need to streamline the procedure and processes to avoid delays.
Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director, SDPI in his welcome remarks said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s southern cluster had immense untapped economic potential. He said that such deliberative sessions before the announcement of the budget would help in articulating policy advice for the government to reflect on for strengthening trade and economic development.
Ahad Nazir, Head of the Center for Private Sector Engagement while sharing the preliminary findings of a survey conducted by SDPI in KP said that difficulty in graduation for firms was observed which is hindering increasing in firms to become exporters.
Poor coordination between government departments results in duplication of policy burden and lack of inclusive industry data results in policies that are generalized and not tailored based on different demographics, he added.
Nazir informed that SDPI would serve as the Secretariat for the National Network of Economic Thinktanks. He reiterated SDPI’s interest in bridging the policy gaps identified by government departments, updating private sector policy developments, reviewing policy documents and bridging gaps between academia and industry for strengthening research environments to meet the industry demand.
Iqbal Sarwar, Director of Business Facilitation, KP-BoIT informed that a mapping activity resulted in identification of 170 regulations for businesses in KP that need to be simplified and thirty regulations so far had been simplified or removed.
Muhammad Salman Khan, Secretary General, Swabi Chamber of Commerce, and Industry stressed educating exporters on international standards and accreditation to tap into the export potential to regional markets. Qurat-ul-Ain, CEO, Ain Consulting stressed on designating focal persons for improving intra-department coordination to simplify the regulatory environment and suggested forming committees to connect industries, academia, and government bodies to improve their communication and collaboration.
Kiran Fida, Project Manager, CGPA stressed briefing the business community on regulations and emphasized on addressing challenges faced by women entrepreneurs through policy initiatives.
Dr Muhammad Yasir, Chairman, Department of Management Sciences, Hazara University reiterated bridging the academia-industry gap to promote indigenous production of chemicals and other products and reducing import reliance.
Rasheed Paracha, Founder Kohat Chamber of Commerce, and Industry said that the unfavorable regulatory environment had discouraged locals. He urged for commercial policy to create a level playing field and limit the number of businesses that refugees can run to enable small local businesses to flourish.
Rashid Aman, Manager, SMEDA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stressed upgrading the scale of cottage industries to transform the export landscape in the province. Ishfaq Ahmed Afridi, Manager Business Planning & Support, Commercial Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development & Management Company (KP-EZDMC) said that specified economic zones had been developed in many cities based on specialized products to add value to products.
Taimur Khan of Institutional Development Expert, SEED urged for smart solutions and public-private partnerships to overcome the sector’s challenges. APP/P:aqk/X:ftp/L:abk/E:abk/I:mzy/R:mzy