LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) Wednesday called for measures to fix current economic downturn saying that government should lead from the front and make policies focused on economic growth of the country.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed said that at this point, country is not there where it should be despite having all kind of resources. They said that lack of research culture is the major reason for economic ills of the country. They said that promotion of research culture will also help overcome various internal issues like decline in exports, energy crisis, lowest tax-to-GDP ratio, inefficiency of Public Sector Entities, brain-drain, shortage of skilled human resources and low industrial production etc.
The LCCI office-bearers said that lack of knowledge and research is one of the biggest reasons of our economic ills. They said that unavailability of authentic data is coming in the way of Pakistan’s external trade.
“We are talking about to be an Asian Tiger but how it is possible when our exports are declining and we are far behind even from those countries who were following us as a role model a few decades ago”, they said.
The LCCI office-bearers said that our exports felling short of target which is not a good omen for the economy at all. They said that our exports are limited to a few merchandise and dependent on a few countries which was the biggest reason of decline in exports.
They urged the government to conduct market research to find out new destinations for the Pakistani products which are best in the world as far as quality and price is concerned. They said that Pakistani Missions abroad should be duty bound to introduce Pakistani products to the foreign buyers and also ensure dissemination of trade related information so that Pakistan entrepreneurs could avail trade opportunities to the maximum.
“It is time to diversify our businesses and have to add new products to attract maximum foreign buyers for Pakistani products”, the office-bearers added.
They said that government would have to introduce “Knowledge & Research” culture in all sectors of economy including energy. They said that promotion of research in energy sector would suggest best solution of power shortfall being experienced by the country since long.
They said that developed countries are researching and finding out new ways of power generation while we are playing the role of silent spectators.
“Only public-private partnership could make a big breakthrough in the field of “Knowledge & Research” therefore government should take business community onboard at all economic matters”, the LCCI President demanded.
They said that trade and Industry is the backbone of the economy as the government generates more than 90 per cent of its total resources from this sector therefore it can make a great contribution in turning Pakistan into one of the greatest nations in the world provided due facilitation and an enabling business atmosphere are ensured.
The LCCI office-bearers also stressed the need for strengthening of institutional framework for being a prerequisite to economic stability, progress and prosperity.
They said that only strong institutions could guarantee good governance but unfortunately never-ever in the past due attention was given towards strengthening of institutions. They said that weak institutions always weak system and no country can achieve its targets with a weak institutional framework.
They said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry acts as a bridge between the Government and the business community. It has always tried to ensure a business-friendly environment through sharing views with the government and by taking all the stakeholders onboard on all the economy related issues. The primary objective of LCCI is to protect the interests of the business community while remaining committed to the cause of development of the country.
They said that there are a number of issues that must be tackled on priority, the biggest one is how to keep the momentum of growth in the wake of a less than targeted growth of the Agriculture and the Manufacturing sector. The second one is the widening gap between exports and imports that could be contained by reducing import of luxury items.
The LCCI office-bearers said that the frequent increases in the prices of energy are making Pakistani products uncompetitive in the international market and Pakistan is losing the international markets to China, India and even Bangladesh. Although the oil prices were linked to international prices of oil, the benefit of decline in oil prices has not been passed on to the consumers for quite a long time.
