Ameen Bandukda, Saboor Ahmed and Ahsan Arshad Ayub were elected Chairman, Senior Vice-Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively, of Site Association of Industry (SAI) on Saturday.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Association, the newly elected chairman Ameen Bandukda said that the cost of doing business was still very high and stressed the need for deep structural reforms to make the industry competitive.
He said that infrastructure needs to be radically improved. Operating and external costs need to be reduced. Bureaucracy needs to be more responsive to the needs of the private sector. They must keep pace with the economic growth and provide enabling environment for trade and industry.
The new chairman said that corruption and low level of education have been the biggest diseases the nation has to suffer. "Our attitude towards corruption needs to be changed."
He said: "We recognise this as an ils but do nothing to combat it. Beside being undesirable, corruption also increases the cost of doing business.
Ameen said that skill development and manpower training have to be improved and must become a priority. "Our working efficiency and productivity is depressing.
Only 200,000 people are being technically trained every year, which should go up to at least 1,000,000. Basic education needs to spread. Average education of an industrial worker is about 3 years of primary schooling. Investment in education will actually be investment in industrial growth."
He said the he strongly believes that by crying about the problems at every government forum would not help in resolving them and mostly turn on deaf ears. "If genuine problems need to be resolved then solutions need to be suggested also," he added.
He proposed to form a strategic advisory council of some active recent former chairmen of this association with the patron in chief as the chairman, "where we meet regularly to discuss obstacles and difficulties and come up with possible solutions to suggest to the government". This committee will also help in chalking out the road map and would also give valuable input and guidance.
The chairman said that immediate issues include the deteriorating infrastructure in Site, dilapidated road network, proposal of SSGC to Ogra to increase tariff by 17 percent, electronically filing of sales tax returns from December 15 and stuck up refunds of sales tax prior to zero rating.
He said his agenda for the long run includes starting work on Site industry house, lay the foundation of an institute of Human Resource and Skill development in Site, and resolve the matter of property tax with the local government, as industrialist are lessees of Site Ltd and are also paying rent.
The out going chairman, Dr Mirza Ikhtair Baig, highlighted the achievements during his tenure. He appreciated the good economic performance, GDP growth, good foreign exchange reserves, exports, etc and added that this had restored the confidence of the buyers and investors in Pakistan.