Sanjrani terms business community's role vital for economic uplift

Business community is the most important pillar of the economic structure and its role is crucial for economic uplift of the country which is highest priority of the present regime. Government is focusing on best environment for the businesses and joined hands with the private sector to improve trade & industry and exports.

Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani expressed these views during an exclusive meeting with the President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Irfan Iqbal Sheikh. According to the LCCI spokesman, the meeting with Chairman Senate was aimed at policy advocacy for the business community.

The Chairman Senate said that government has opened all economic areas to achieve the goals of economic growth. He urged the private sector to become proactive to meet international standards & better marketing of products to compete effectively. He said businessmen should identify hurdles in the way of value addition of products and share with government to address problems.

He urged businessmen to explore the untapped markets which offer good potential for improving trade and exports. He assured that government would play the role of facilitator while entrepreneurs have to take the lead to improve trade & exports and the economy. The government is committed to overcome all economic challenges in cooperation with all stakeholders including businessmen and the civil society, he said.

Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani said that the role of entrepreneurs is decisive to improve trade, exports, tax revenue & jobs. He said that trade and parliamentary delegation can play a fundamental role in promotion of exports, trade and investment. He assured full support of parliament to LCCI President for its endeavors aimed at economic stability of the country.

LCCI President informed the Chairman Senate that Lahore Chamber has declared ongoing year as the year of exports promotion. He said that though macroeconomic indicators are showing consistent improvement but exports of the country are not up to the mark. He said that our exports need to be re-aligned especially increasing its proportion to the new potential markets with a multi-dimensional strategy.

"Pakistan is bestowed with sufficient human resource having a large number of young, professional and highly trained manpower. He said that we should export human after proper training that would at least double the foreign remittances to Pakistan", he said. We do not fear to compete with regional countries but government must ensure level playing field including compatible duty structures, subsidies, input costs and non-tariff barriers, he added.

He said the size of global Halal Food industry is dollar 3 trillion. Pakistan is a natural hub for halal food industry but our share is negligible. Pakistan can only obtain marginal value of exports because our airlines do not have enough capacity to transport the perishable goods, he added.