Information of advantage and problems to live in Pakistan as nonresident have to know before planning migrate there running and operating business. In terms of investment opportunities, Pakistan is an ideal place for foreign investors. While their economy isn’t doing that well, Pakistan still boasts a lot of resources and a great labor force. Investing in the right business is sure to generate a lot of revenue for any company. In order to conduct your small business ideas in this country, you would require living in Pakistan as well. Life in Pakistan isn’t always easy. There are several problems in this country which could potentially scare of foreign investors from staying here for a long time. With that in mind, listed below are the problems to live in Pakistan.
- Energy crisis– The first major problem about living in Pakistan is their energy crisis. Not all parts of Pakistan receive the adequate amount of energy everyday meaning there are large parts of the city that undergo load shedding for a number of hours per day. This could hamper your daily activities and disrupt your daily routine. While the people of Pakistan are used to such power outages, an expat, especially somebody from the western side of the world would find it very inconvenient and may even drive him or her crazy.
- Heat Waves– Pakistan is known for a lot of things but good weather isn’t exactly their forte. The country experiences extreme heat waves during the summer. The weather can rise as high as 45 degrees during summer days. It’s not just the heat that will bother you; the massive humidity levels are likely to make you uncomfortable too. You would be drenched in your own sweat and suffer from heat stroke. If your business activities take you outdoors then you are likely to have a terrible time in Pakistan.
- Political Instability– No matter which part of the world you are working in, getting government support is crucial in running your business. In fact, countries with political instability have a record of having a poor economy as it disrupts the daily business activities of the whole country. That is exactly what is wrong with Pakistan in the current situation. To say the political condition of the country is bad would be an understatement. With their war on terror inside the country, Pakistan is experiencing a very turbulent time. This means that living in the country and carrying out your business activities with multiple ideas would become a mammoth task. Even if you can run your operations smoothly, you are likely to do so after hurdling over a great number of obstacles.
- Life security– As mentioned in the earlier point, the current political condition in Pakistan is pretty bad. Every other day there is a news of some sort of criminal activities going on in public places and every time there are quite a lot of people who are either dying or getting injured. As a foreigner, this might not be the best of times to visit Pakistan. While security measures have been increased tenfold and the roads are safer, there is no guarantee of safety for anyone. Living in this country is great but if you are constantly worried about your life then it makes no sense to keep staying here.
- Uneducated workforce– It is true that the workforce in Pakistan is quite high. They are able and if properly utilized the productivity of any business can reach the optimum levels. However, this same workforce is considerably under educated. While this may not seem like a big problem, having uneducated workers means the efficiency levels drop quite significantly. If your business requires the workers to work on complex machines then you would find the workers of little or no use. The time spent in Pakistan would end up being a search for educated workers as nonresident with work permit or visa and that can be turn out to be a big problem.
- Un-supportive government– The Pakistani government is working hard to attract foreign investors into the country. While they are eager to see outsiders inject FDIs, they are not exactly making things easy for them. If one would want to invest in this country they would have to go through several stages of government regulations. There is a lot of paperwork to be done, lots of unnecessary documents to be submitted. In short, the red tapes alone are overwhelming which may end up causing the foreign investors regret coming to live here. Most governments around the South Asian region are very warm towards foreign investors and are supportive of their business plans but in Pakistan, it seems to be the other way around.
While Pakistan is working on making themselves a suitable country for FDIs and opening up their economy for the rest of the world to join into, there are several factors which make problems to live in Pakistan being foreigner. Unless and until these problems are not solved, not many investors will be eager to stay and conduct their starting businesses in Pakistan.
