Former President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and Guard Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Iftikhar Ali Malik has submitted, on behalf of the traders and industries, budget proposals for 2006-07 budget to the government.
The FPCCI's former chief said the trade bodies were democratic institutions, holding regular elections to elect the leadership and the prime objective of the business community was solidarity and prosperity of the country.
He said the traders and industrialists were working for the welfare of the state, and added: "The business flourishes only in the peaceful atmosphere and there is a need to maintain peace and harmony in the country."
He said the government should incorporate traders and industrialists in budgetary proposals.
CONSISTENCY IN POLICIES:
The government was consistently following the development plans to increase in gross domestic product (GDP) at a reasonably good rate, increase exports, foreign exchange reserves, remittances and per capita income and tax revenues.
He said the traders and investors were confident that the government would keep on following investment-friendly policies and associate the stakeholders with their policies to get the benefits of the development reach trade and industry in reducing the impact of poverty in the country.
However, he said the prices of POL, gas, energy and consumers items such as sugar, edible oils, pulses were shaking the confidence of the common man.
As such, the traders and industrialists proposed that the government should take strict measures for the welfare of the common man and alleviate poverty, he added.
WATER SHORTAGE:
Malik said the persistent shortage of water was a threat to agriculture sector, which was Pakistan's mainstay and major contributor to the GDP. Water shortage could also reduce the capacity to produce hydro-electricity, which was less expensive source of energy, he said.
The former FPCCI President said the traders' community suggested building up of the new reservoirs to ensure better water supply for agriculture.
LIVESTOCK:
He said Pakistan was the fifth largest producers of milk and was also successful in raising poultry and livestock, and added that all the three sectors were in the conservative shape. These should be developed at villages and value-added products produced for exports, he said.
The government should encourage co-operation between the industrialists and the landlord to jointly establish agro-based industries, he suggested, and said the bank should be asked to finance purchase of machinery.
He said the scheme would change and improve living standards of the people in rural areas. The chances of success were 80 percent. It would provide jobs to the labour at village level, he opined.
ENERGY PRICE HIKE:
Malik feared that increasing prices of POL would add ultimately to Pakistan's cost of doing business and production, and said that it would have multi-facet repercussion on the national economy. Transportation cost would increase, cost of electricity produced from thermal resources would increase and the same would be the story in the case of thermal resources, he said.
He said prices of alternative energy resources - CNG and LNG - would increase, and added all these factors would push up the prices, making local products expensive and unable to compete with the products imported from fast-developing countries like China, Indonesia and other Asean countries. Since energy moved the wheel of industry and was necessary for any industrial activity, it was, therefore, urgent that all resources of generating energy, including energy from alternative resources should be tapped, he said.
The option of nuclear energy should be exercised, as it was a cheap source of energy, he added.
Presently, local POL production was roughly 60,000 barrel per day, which was one-sixth of the total requirement, he said, and suggested that Pakistan should give more incentives to explore oil and gas resources. He also stressed the need for exploring and developing minerals resources, and pointed out that recently it had been estimated that deposits of copper and gold in Balochistan valued around 65 billions dollar.
LAW AND ORDER:
The FPCCI's former chief said the investors were shy in investing in Pakistan. Pakistan's direct foreign investment (DFI) remained only one billion dollar, which was only a small fraction as compared to China, India, Malaysia and other countries, he said, and demanded of the government to take all possible measures to improve the law and order situation.
HUGE TRADE DEFICIT:
Referring to the increasing trade deficit around nine billion dollars despite improvement in economic indicators, he said the government should take immediate steps to improve its performance in this area.
The trade deficit would have adverse affect on the economy, he said, and suggested that the government should ban import of luxury items, including big cars. However, import of machinery and raw materials should not be subjected to any foreign exchange restrictions in the budget, as it would retard the process of industrialisation.
MARKET ACCESS:
More access to the United States and European market was inevitable to increase exports of traditional or non-traditional items, he said, and added it was encouraging that the Prime Minister was visiting different countries where Pakistan's exports were negligible.
WAREHOUSING FACILITIES:
Referring to the increasing demand of consumer on ex-stock basis, particularly in the Central Asian countries, he said the government should encourage private sector to establish warehouses in landlocked countries surrounding Pakistan to stock goods and make immediate supply to the consumer markets.
EXPORTS:
Exports in the present World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime were considered as backbone of economy. As such, the government should focus on increase in exports, he said, and proposed that Pakistan's embassies should assist the exporters by providing market information through making market research of the country of their accreditation, particularly for high price products and explore new markets for traditional and non-traditional items.
TRANSPORT, AUTO INDUSTRY:
Transport sector should be developed to meet the future requirements of transportation of industry within the country and among Saarc countries and Central Asian countries.
He said the auto industry had developed and the government should protect it now against unnecessary import of luxury cars from abroad on low rate of duty.
He said the local auto industry was investing billions of rupees to enhance its production capacity, and added the government should avoid any measures, which could damage the local auto industry.
VENDOR INDUSTRY:
Vendor industry had enhanced its capacity, he said, and added any policy to import second-hand parts would push this industry to wall. It should be given protection through TBS or other measure.
SICK INDUSTRY:
"Fear of industry being sick always prevailed. During its transitional period from conservative stage to high-tech, it further heightened. We should avoid the bitter experience of the past. Previously, a number of industries became sick as those were established on loans advanced on political basis. These loans were being written off by the banks," he said.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:
Owing to the migration of technicians and engineers to abroad, Malik said there was persistent shortage of skilled labour in the country. The new developments in industry had revealed that the techniques, being followed in our country, were not according to the international standard, he said, and suggested that the government should improve the skill of labour by improving the technical training facilities.
The government should set-up vocational institutions in big towns to tap the human potentials there, he added.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT:
There was also need to encourage research and development activities in the universities so that "we are able to develop indigenous technologies to add value to our raw materials. Co-operation between industry and universities to develop R&D in the required field could yield prompt results," he opined.
Comments
Comments are closed.