LAHORE: Pakistan’s bleak economy can neither endure political turmoil nor afford political instability; therefore the politics of confrontation, agitation, protest, violence and agitation should be avoided for the sake of national interest.

Addressing the United Business Group’s core committee members in connection with forthcoming annual election of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Iftikhar Ali Malik, President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said here on Wednesday that what we need is political stability which is prerequisite for sustained economic growth to cope with the multiple challenges in Pakistan.

He said time has changed as now the influential nations are paying more attention to financial warfare to continue their dominance. These countries are successfully using their weapons of economic destruction to weaken economics of poor nations to achieve their unholy designs while Pakistan’s economy is not strong enough to withstand economic terrorism.

Malik said it is indeed important to increase our exports and for that purpose we need to reduce our cost of doing business so that our products can remain competitive in the world markets. He further said trade facilitation is the key to promote industries and we need to remove all the obstacles and create the culture of trade facilitation.

“Our country has tremendous potential as we have enormous talent. What we need is the consistency in the government policies and a clear roadmap to move forward,” he added.

He was of the view that all the sectors including the industrial sector should discharge their national obligations and play their key role in strengthening the economy while the government should introduce reforms and control the smuggling of raw material and finished goods.

Iftikhar Ali Malik also urged the government to conduct market research to find out new foreign destinations for the Pakistani products which are best in the world as far as quality and price are concerned.

He said that Pakistani missions abroad should be duty bound to introduce Pakistani products to the foreign buyers and also ensure dissemination of trade related information so that Pakistan entrepreneurs could avail trade opportunities to the maximum.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020