LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday agreed to extend full support to Customs Clearing Agents to make the Lahore Dry Port profitable again.
The LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashari, Senior Vice President Mian Tariq Misbah and Vice President Kashif Anwar were talking to a delegation of Lahore Customs Agents Association (LCAA) led by Muhammad Amjad Chaudhry. LCCI former President Muhammad Ali Mian, the LCAA President Agha Iftikhar and SVP Chaudhry Abdul Sattar Gujar also spoke on the occasion.
The LCCI office-bearers assured the agents that Lahore Chamber would utilize all its energies to put the LDP back to business in the larger interests of 4000 families attached with this dry port.
The economic turnaround was directly linked to ease of doing business and the government would have to put in place a consultative economic policy framework for creation of conducive business environment, the observed.
The LCCI President said, "We are fast identifying issues ailing the economy other than the energy shortage. These challenges along with their comprehensive short and long-term solutions would be sent to all the concerned departments including ministries of Commerce and Finance, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan."
The LCCI was constant contact with almost heads of all the government departments to find out their plans for the economic well being of the country, he mentioned.
The LCCI office-bearer also expressed the resolve to take up the issues of Customs Clearing Agents with the FBR to ensure smooth functioning at all ports. The LCCI was well aware of the customs agents' problems, they said, assuring that they would be putting their best efforts to get these resolved at the earliest.
Sohail Lashari also briefed the visiting delegation on his meeting with Punjab Governor wherein the LCCI was given an unequivocal assurance of full cooperation and support. "We are least interested in seeking any kind of concessions or incentives from the government rather we want hand-holding to get out of economic mire that have taken hostage the entire economy," maintained.
Earlier, Chaudhry Muhammad Amjad congratulated the LCCI office-bearers and sought their help to operationalise Lahore Dry Port that had dormant because of non-arrival of freight trains.
He said that there was a time when 70 to 100 freight trains were used to arrive at the Port and giving a huge revenue to the government but today the situation was totally otherwise as some people having vested interests wanted to fail this model dry port.
He urged the LCCI office-bearers to invite Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique to the Lahore Chamber and discuss with him this important issue of national importance.
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