FAISALABAD: Close liaison between senior bureaucracy and business community is imperative to give proper input in formulation of economic policy in consultation with stakeholders and strictly in accordance with the ground realities, said Atif Munir Sheikh, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).

He was addressing the participants of 31st Senior Management Course at National Institute of Management (NIM) Islamabad that was on a study tour of FCCI. He welcomed the participants and introduced Faisalabad and FCCI with special focus on its role in the national economy.

He said that currently, the law and order situation is under control in Faisalabad but it may change as almost 0.5 million workers would be rendered jobless due to the declining industrialization and exports.

Atif Munir expressed concern over the political instability and said that repeated transfers and postings with rapid regime change may also have a negative impact on the economy as well as on the law and order situation. He said that purchasing power has decreased globally due to the declining economic activities after covid-19.

He said that American buyers have withheld their orders despite the fact that LCs have been received along with a 25% margin. He said that as the economic activity will return to normal in Bangladesh, India and China, some of these orders may also be shifted to these countries.

He was critical of the appreciation of the dollar and said that it had a negative impact on our volatile economy. He further explained that our exports are import based and for every dollar earned, we have to spend 80 cents on imports.

“The solution to this situation is only development of the import substitution industry”, he said and added that industrialists switched over from costly gas to coal but its price has also jumped to 320 dollar per metric ton.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022