FPCCI launches research document

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) on Thursday launched a research document titled "Review of Pakistan's Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) Sector - Diagnosis and the way forward". The launching ceremony, which was presided by Sultan Chawla, President FPCCI along with Zakariya Usman Vice-President FPCCI and Mansha Churra, Vice-President FPCCI, held at federation house.
Chawla said that the research document, which was a joint study by FPCCI's R&D cell and business support center of Institute of Business Management (IoBM), covers the industrial policies of LSM sector for last 20 years. Highlighting the findings and recommendations of the research document, he said the contribution of trade in GDP growth has been constrained at 12 percent during the last 20 years, due to unfriendly policies, which was not only restrained industrial growth but also created adverse impact on investments.
He said the services sector, which is considered to be the engine of industrial growth, has not been progressed during said period because of hostile monetary policy and interest based system.
He said that the implementation of ad havoc decisions and lack of long term plans for economic development had confined the GDP growth rate at 3 percent during last seven years. He said that the energy crisis has caused to decline the GDP growth by 2 percent urged the authorities concerned to review its policies in a positive manner for economic revival.
Chawla further said there was no institutional mechanisms, which could allow FPCCI researchers to interact, hence the federation has asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to provide technical assistance and allow the FPCCI's researchers to access its database for the purpose.
Later, in a question answer session, Zakariya and Mansha dispelled the impression that the government has taken the federation on board for the implementation of Reformed GST, saying that neither federal finance minister nor chairman FBR had consulted with the federation in this regard. They also stressed on the reintroduction of five-year industrial policy, which would not only attract investments but also help the government in reviving economy.
The FPCCI's researchers have reviewed the growth rate of five major industry of LSM sector including textile, pharmaceutical, automobile, fertiliser and engineering. According to the researchers' findings, some 2.45 percent growth was witnessed in pharmaceutical in 2009-10; seven percent growth in automobile in 2009-10; eight percent growth in engineering sector in 2005-06; 4.5 percent growth in fertiliser sector during 2009-10 while textile sector has shown nominal growth because of heavy imports amounting to $235 million during the said period.