British American Tobacco shifting key business to Pakistan
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The logo of British American Tobacco company
ISLAMABAD: British American Tobacco (BAT) is shifting its Business Shared Services operations from Malaysia to Pakistan, which is indicative of accelerating foreign investor trust within the country’s economic sustainability, a press release said on Tuesday.
BAT is that the first multinational company to maneuver its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services to Pakistan after Deutsche Bank withdrew its operations from the country.
This development came to fore during a high-level meeting at the Ministry of Commerce, which was chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood.
The commerce adviser noted the opening of business services by BAT “is a sign that the country is now being considered as a price effective location for activities like back office services, BPO, call centres, etc”.
The adviser said earlier this year he had held a gathering with the management of BAT, via video link, so as to plug Pakistan as a favourable destination for shared services.
He lauded the Pakistan Tobacco Company for succeeding in accomplishing this monumental task and announcing BAT’s decide to found out its ‘business shared services’ organisation for Asia Pacific and Middle East Region in Pakistan.
He told the meeting it had been achieved after a rigorous process, spanning over several months, during which Pakistan was evaluated by BAT, along side countries like India and Bangladesh.
“This decision was taken after evaluating countries on key factors just like the existing commercial presence of BAT, country sustainability, availability of workforce and talent etc,” Dawood said adding, “BAT’s project will create thousands of jobs in Pakistan over subsequent five years, besides serving as a talent incubator within the country”.
The meeting was informed that shared services are covered under Mode-II of the service exports and it might initially help the country earn $100 million once a year , with the potential to extend further within the future. Dawood said the govt would facilitate the corporate in fulfilling legal and regulatory requirements to determine the organisation and hoped it might encourage other multinational subsidiaries in Pakistan to maneuver such services to the country.
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