F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: As an important development towards promoting trade & business activities in the province, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has launched an online Government-Business Communication Platform, titled as “GoBiz Connect” with the primary purpose to have better coordination and communication between the provincial government’s departments and business community.
This web portal would prove to be an effective platform in order to boost business activities and economic growth by enhancing cooperation and coordination between the private and public sectors; and will also serve as an effective tool to monitor and track government’s decisions related to the redressal of business community issues/complaints and taking into consideration the proposals of business community in government’s policy decisions regarding business.
The launching ceremony of the web portal was held here at Chief Minister’s House on Wednesday with the Caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan as chief guest. British High Commissioner Jane Marriot, Caretaker Provincial Ministers Dr. Najeebullah and Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah, Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Provincial Team Lead, Sub National Governance Program Dr. Raheel Ahmad Siddiqui, representatives of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Women Chamber of Commerce and Industries and government officials attended the ceremony. The web portal “GoBizz Connect” has been launched with the technical assistance of Sub National Governance Program funded by Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO-UKAID).
Addressing the ceremony, Caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan appreciated the efforts of KP IT Board and donor agencies on successful launching of the portal and said that the initiative will play pivotal role in promoting business activities in the province by ensuring the direct involvement of business community in policy decisions of the government related to business and investment opportunities.
He said that transforming Public Financial Management System for better economic environment in the province was one of the major goals of the Provincial Government. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province presents an ideal environment for investment in the various sectors including Infrastructure, Mines and Minerals, Energy & Power and Tourism, the need is an integrated approach by the different stakeholders to fully exploit this potential and newly launched Online Web Portal will have key role to this effect.
Azam Khan maintained that better Government and Business Stakeholders Communication will provide an opportunity for the identification of feasible projects to be executed at provincial level as well as presentation to the Special Investment and Facilitation Council (SIFC) which is the highest investment facilitation forum in the country, and continued that all these efforts will ultimately result in the economic development of the province as well as the country. He made it clear that the success of the initiative will certainly depend on the sound coordination and better integration of all the provincial government departments involved in regulatory and other functions related to the business adding that the provincial government has already taken multiple steps to facilitate the investors and promote business activities in the province.
He remarked that the Asan Karobar web portal developed by the KP Board of Investment with the technical assistance of the KP IT Board was doing well in facilitating the business community, and added that the only problem is the lack of integration with all the essential departments; and the web portal GoBiz Connect will prove to be a milestone initiative to achieve this purpose. He said that the web portal would also be integrated with the business portal of the federal government to have an easy access to foreign investors.
He further stated that the Economic Development and Investment Promotion Council (EDIPC) needs to work more pro-actively and utilize the current initiative of the online government-business communication platform adding that an entirely research and evidence based investment strategy for the province also need to be chalked out with the input of all the stake-holders. The Chief Minister extended his gratitude to the management of Sub National Governance Program (SNGP) and Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) for their continuous support to the provincial government.
British High Commissioner Jane Marriot also addressed the ceremony and said that Pakistan and British government were enjoying long lasting and friendly relations adding that currently, British donor agencies are supporting a number of public welfare projects in the different social sectors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He hoped that the cooperation between both the government will continue in future as well. Addressing the ceremony Secretary Industries KP, Zulfiqar Ali Shah highlighted the salient features, objectives, background and other related matters of the web portal.
KP CM launches online ‘GoBiz Connect’
