LAHORE: The Provincial Minister for Industries, Chaudhry Muhammad Shafique, on Thursday said that the government is planning to introduce a new monitoring system to improve the efficiency of all the provincial departments.
The Minister was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar presented the Address of Welcome while Senior Vice President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad, former Presidents Muhammad Ali Mian, Mian Muzaffar Ali, former Senior Vice President Engineer Sohail Lashari, Executive Committee Members Mian Zahid Javaid, Amjad Chaudhry, former Executive Committee members Rehmatullah Javaid and Khawaja Khawar Rashid also spoke on the occasion.
The Minister said that a new system of checks and balances was being introduced with an objective to give boost to economic activities in the country that had gone slow due to various internal and external challenges.
Chaudhry Shafique said that both Federal and Provincial governments were putting in their best efforts to overcome gas and electricity shortage but the fact remains that all the energy generation projects are time taking.
Talking about import of LNG from Qatar, the Minister said that talks with a Turkish company are in advance stage as the company has agreed to lay pipeline from Karachi to Lahore in 15 months.
The Provincial Minister also revealed that a new industrial estate near Pind Dadan Khan was being established to overcome the challenge of unemployment.
The LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar said that the business community should be facilitated for continuing with their business activities in very difficult economic conditions.
He urged the Minister to direct the official of the Industries Department to strengthen liaison with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the early solution of the problems being faced by the businessmen. “There should be one-window sort of arrangement for the Lahore Chamber.”
Farooq Iftikhar suggested that all other trade and Industry related departments should be given under the Industries Department as it would help bring transparency in their working.
He said that there were some provincial departments that were playing policeman’s role and keep on creating problems for genuine businessmen and they should immediately be stopped.
Farooq Iftikhar said that the business community had attached high hopes, optimism and expectations from the government. It will be a great feat for this regime if they are able to prove themselves as the ray of hope and confidence for the dwindling industry of Punjab.
The LCCI President said that the Industrial Estates in Punjab should be exempted from load-shedding of gas and electricity completely as we had already lost a number of global destinations due to energy crisis.
