With a view to boost foreign investors' sentiments for the prosperity and progress of the country, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has suggested immediate brainstorming for economic planning by the upcoming government.
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said the health of leading economic indicators which is directly linked to the development of the country is not good at the moment. The indicators including manufacturing activities, housing sector, stock market, ease of doing business, gross domestic product, income, unemployment rate, consumer price index, currency strength, availability of energy, debts, balance of trade and foreign exchange reserves portray real picture of economy.
The strong economic indicators not only attract huge foreign direct investment but also build the confidence of local investors. As a result, the remittances are increased that turn the country into hub of manufacturing and economic activities, he said.
Unfortunately, the present economic indicators have failed to attract the attention of our economic managers, he added. LCCI chief said the manufacturing activities strengthen the gross domestic product (GDP) besides generating revenue to the national exchequer and creating employment opportunities. However, the current growth rate of the manufacturing sector is not up to the mark, he added.
The average industrial production growth rate stayed at 5.32 percent during 1990 to 2018. The government, therefore, should facilitate manufacturing sector through concrete measures, he said, and stressed the need for redressing basic issues including availability of cheap energy and early payment of refunds to bolster the exporters' liquidity.
Malik Javaid said that startup of business in Pakistan is a hard task, therefore, the government should redress this issue by launching one-window operation so that unnecessary interference of the public sector departments could be reduced.
He said that Pakistan poorly ranked at 147 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business. He said the cost of doing business is also one of the major hurdles hampering growth of all the sectors of economy whether it is manufacturing or agriculture.
He said that foreign remittances could easily reach $40-50 billion in the next few years if government announces incentives on the investment made by the expatriate Pakistanis. He said that energy, agriculture, telecommunication and information technology have the potential to attract expats' remittances. He further said the issue of huge trade imbalance can only be tackled by enhancing exports. He said that Europe, North America and Gulf remained the Pakistan's traditional export markets. The exporters, therefore, need to look for new markets in Central Asia, Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia.
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