Pakistan has secured a rank as low as 103 out of 144 nations, behind India, Kazakhstan and even Ghana on Forbes’ annual list of the best countries for business in 2015. Denmark has topped the list of the 144 nations on the Best Countries of Business in 2015. Pakistan is lagging behind in business matters and political leadership is incapable of doing any good to improve the situation as they have to heavily rely on the bureaucratic set up which has its own accesses and limitations. The country has always scored poorly on metrics such as finance and trade and has failed to arrest corruption in official cadre. Earlier, the World Bank had pointed out ambiguous laws and structural anomalies as the stumbling blocks in the way of business, trade and foreign investment in Pakistan. In the list, the United States — the financial capital of the world and the largest economy — lost four points to reach 22, but performed poorly on monetary freedom and red tape. India ranked 97th on the list despite developing into an open-market economy as traces of its past policies still haunts its economy.
Pakistan is the emerging economy with rising middle class having per capita income of more than $12,000, but every businessman in the country has to struggle for survival on several fronts, including official rigmarole, energy crisis and factors which tend to increase cost of production. Despite all odds, the long-term growth is positive as 42 percent of the population consists of young generation and World Bank has projected this financial year’s growth at 4.5 percent. The government is struggling to ensure its presence in the global economy while efforts are on to achieve regional integration. The business community in Pakistan is under pressure, especially from the government agencies, and is looking investment opportunities in other countries, including Bangladesh where anti-Pakistan sentiments still run high. Sri Lanka and UAE are also attractive destinations for capital flight, but the government is still entangled in withholding tax issue with traders. The government agencies are hell-bent to kill the hen which gives golden egg once for allwithout realizing its aftermath.
The ultimate power and key lies in the hands of the government to resolve the matters. There is urgent need to break the monotony not only in the official behavior, but also on the businessmen’s ends. In the age of science and technology, the business community must look for options to earn through the industry which needs minimum energy requirement and calls minimum interference of the tax officials. Pakistan is English speaking country with highly qualified software engineers and developers. If we as a nation concentrate only on this sector, the country can achieve the cherished goal of prosperity and development in shortest possible time.
