FAISALABAD: Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said on Saturday that Faisalabad was ready to lead the national economy with phenomenal growth in conventional and emerging industrial sector after excelling in the field of textiles.

Addressing the first session of second day of the Pakistan Economic Conference (PEC) 2022, he appreciated the dynamism and entrepreneurship of the city and said that it was filled with the monotonous sound of “Khat, Khat” of power looms in 60s when he had visited this city first time.

However, when he revisited Faisalabad in 2019, the industrial sector was facing closure but due to viable policies of the government, the city regained a new momentum as industrial sector was working with full capacity and most of units were not getting skilled workers, he added.

He said that now another era of progress and prosperity was knocking at its doorsteps as business community was now contemplating to switch over to agriculture, IT, online businesses and a long chain of other sectors instead of depending on the textile alone.

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He was optimistic that the city would make a phenomenal progress because of its inherent dynamism as the people of the city had innovative ideas and skills to excel in any field.

He also quoted Sialkot which had developed its own airport and said that Faisalabad would also undertake mega development projects from its own resources.

Commenting on the industrial growth, he said that people were ready to switch over from trading to the manufacturing which would encourage exports.

“We should not restrict our exports to the regional level but introduce our products throughout the world particularly in the untapped global markets”, he added.

He said that Pakistan had inked Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Uzbekistan and Afghanistan which would provide access to Pakistani exporters to a huge market of 72 million individuals in landlocked Central Asian states.