ISLAMABAD: A delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) led by President Khalid Iqbal Malik called on Irfan Siddiqui, Advisor to the Prime Minister for National History and Literary Heritage and apprised him of the key issues of business community. Khalid Malik Senior Vice President, Tahir Ayub Vice President ICCI, Mian Akram Farid, Zafar Bakhtawari, Sheikh Amir Waheed, Ch. Muhammad Naeem, Raja Abdul Majeed and others were in the delegation.
Addressing the delegation, Irfan Siddiqui, Advisor to the Prime Minister for National History and Literary Heritage said that business community was playing leading role in the economic development of the country and government would make all efforts to address its key issues. He said the economy of Pakistan was in far better position now while the CPEC project would create many new opportunities for business and investment for private sector. He stressed that private sector should focus on upgrading its machinery and technology to compete robustly for joint ventures in CPEC projects.
He said prime minister was determined to create conducive environment for the private sector and government was working on many initiatives to address energy and other problems. He was hopeful that energy issue would be solved in 2018 that would pave way for better growth of business, industrial and investment activities in the country.
Speaking at the occasion, Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry highlighted the key issues of business community. He said trade deficit had increased while exports had fallen and stressed that government should work with private sector to address the key issues of the economy. He said that existing taxpayers should never be further burdened with more taxes and government should focus on expanding the tax net which was better approach for improving the tax revenue.
He said government had announced some incentives in Trade Policy 2015-18 for exporters, but these incentives have not fully benefited the exporters due to cumbersome procedures involved in availing these schemes. He stressed that government should streamline its complicated procedures to facilitate the private sector.
Khalid Malik Senior Vice President, Tahir Ayub Vice President ICCI, Mian Akram Farid, Zafar Bakhtawari, Shekh Amir Waheed and others also spoke at the occasion.
