LAHORE: Lahore and Faisalabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry have agreed to work jointly for the cause of Kalabagh Dam, promotion of regional trade, exploration of non-traditional global destinations and for the activation of Pakistan’s FTAs/PTAs with other countries.
The decision was made in a meeting between the Presidents of two Chambers. LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashari and FCCI President Engineer Sohail Bin Rashid along with their respective executive members discussed a number of issues that needed to be focused to put the economy on a faster pace of development.
A joint committee on Kalabagh dam was also constituted. The committee would develop a strategy in consultation with other Chambers of the country to pave way for the early construction of the dam.
Both the Chambers also agreed to share their respective latest research reports for the common good of business community of the country and decided to form a Joint Working Group to further strengthen cooperation in the field of research and development.
The Joint Working Group would comprise of Executive Committee Members and senior Research & Development staff of the two Chambers and would be independent of leadership change at the Chambers as a result of their annual elections, thus ensuring continuity.
There was a consensus among the participants of the meeting that government should focus on promotion of regional trade that has the potential to bring progress and prosperity to this part of the world.
FCCI President Sohail Bin Rashid called for a two-pronged strategy to enhance trade volume among SAARC countries that is presently negligible when compared with other regional blocks in the world including European Union.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashari said that strength of the private sector lies in unity therefore they should extend full support to each other on all economic issues and challenges.
He said that Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry had already taken a number of steps to educate its members on GSP Plus to enable them to get maximum benefit out of this great opportunity.
He said that very recently LCCI in collaboration with TDAP arranged a seminar wherein the members were given necessary guidance to work with their counterparts in European Economies.
Briefing about LCCI mediation centre, LCCI President said that it was established with active collaboration of IFC which was inaugurated in August 2012. It is only the beginning of systematic efforts needed for making consistent improvement in investment climate in the country. The business community of surrounding cities of Lahore can benefit from it in case they get into any commercial dispute either locally, nationally or internationally. It is time-saving, flexible and confidential way of finding resolutions.
Earlier, the two chambers also renewed the MoU signed between LCCI and FCCI in July 2005 hoping that it would lay a solid foundation for both the institutions to effectively collaborate with each other in pursuit of economic development.
Senior Vice President of FCCI Riazul Haq, Vice President Ch Muhammad Asghar and LCCI Executive Committee Members including Muhammad Aslam, ChaudhryTalha, Tayyab Butt, Muhammad Haroon Arora, Zafar Mehmood, Mian Zahid Javaid and former vice president Saeeda Nazar also spoke on the occasion.
