Acting President, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Shaikh Muhammad Arshad urged the government to promote private sector and entrepreneurship, if it wants to achieve high growth rates. He was addressing a delegation of 32-member under-training officers of the Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development during visit to the LCCI. Executive Committee Member LCCI, Mian Zahid Javaid and Chaudhry Wajid Ali also spoke on the occasion.
Arshad said the failure to actively promote entrepreneurs have resulted in economic slow down. He said that the economic stability would not come on its own as it is linked with good governance. The acting president LCCI said that there was a dire need to review the ongoing policies to make them result-oriented. He said that the government should work on a comprehensive and long term reforms to accelerate pace of development and sustainable economic growth.
Arshad said that the government was duty-bound to provide all facilities to local and foreign investors to strengthen their confidence and pave the way for rapid economic growth. He asked the government to focus on public-private partnership for optimal utilisation of potential and experience of the private sector. He called for steps for greater market access for Pakistani products in new markets abroad. He said that economic growth could help in employment generation and poverty alleviation.
He said that growing gap between revenue and expenditure has increased the vulnerability of fiscal framework, requiring the federal and provincial governments to tighten belt with a view to putting economy on track. The LCCI acting president said that the LCCI was making all out efforts to give boost to business and economic activities in the country. To achieve the goal, it is holding seminars and inviting foreign delegations to Pakistan. He also gave a detailed briefing to the delegation on the working of the LCCI. He said that a number of LCCI delegations would be visiting potential business destinations around the globe this year to obtain export orders and to initiate joint ventures with their counterparts.