Senior Punjab Minister Raja Riaz has said the government is taking all necessary steps to overcome the current energy crisis since it is aware of public sufferings and difficulties being faced by the industry. His comments came at the closing ceremony of a two-day Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) SME Fair-2008 at the chamber on Friday.
He said a crash energy conservation plan had been prepared by the Federal government to bridge the demand-supply gap. The minister squarely blamed the previous government for the energy shortages, saying that in 1994 a plan was chalked out to produce 600mw of electricity by building small power projects on canals, but the plan could never go ahead because of unknown reasons.
"Had a go-ahead been granted to these smaller power projects in yesteryears, the situation would have been far better," he said. "Look at India, it has built scores of dams in all these years," he added.
On small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the minister paid tribute to the chamber for supplementing the government efforts in bringing an economic turnaround. Speaking next, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian urged the minister to evolve all future business policies, saying several good policies in the past could never give desired results for want of attention towards their implementation.
About the energy crisis, he told the minister to tap alternate energy resources because it would help curtail the government's import bill going up with every passing day because of high oil prices in the international market. He said that not only the industry was heavily suffering, but also being feared that the unemployment graph could further go up because of the power shortages.