ISLAMABAD: Business community Tuesday urged the government for reducing power tariff for export sector of the country to develop and boost the local industrial sector.
Speaking at a seminar on export competitiveness, President Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Zubair Tufail said regional countries were providing incentives to their export sector.
The price of gas and electricity was about 50 percent less in the region, besides their labour was also cheap and due to these inputs their exports had witnessed significant increase, he observed.
The FPCCI president urged the government for reducing the price of gas, besides slashing the power tariff for the exports sector in order to give a boost to local industrial sector.
He said these measures would help to revive the export sector by rapid industrial growth in the country, which would also absorb the growing labor force of the country.
Addressing the event former Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain said exports play a very important role in keeping the economy stable and stressed the need to facilitate the sector.
Reasons behind decrease in local exports include cost and availability of energy, want of skilled labour and lack of interest in imparting training to the staff on the part of export industries, he said. Dr Ishrat Hussain said high cost of doing business was the main causes of loss of competitiveness and retreat in the international market.
