Non-serious attitude towards economic issues has aggravated the situation which was also complicating the problems faced by businessmen as well as common people, said Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). Addressing the participants of 18th Senior Management Course of National Institute of Management Karachi, he said that Faisalabad is the third largest city of Pakistan which was earning 50 percent of the total textile exports of the country.
He told that despite of its important role in national economy, its problems are not resolved and a sizeable number of industries have been fallen sick rendering hundreds of workers jobless. He expressed serious concern over the decline in exports and said that it was also fall out impact of the non-serious attitude towards economic problems.
Responding to a question, Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain Senior Vice President FCCI said that the cost of electricity in our production cost has been estimated around 35 percent which is highest in this region. He said that textile units have capacity to generate 2000 MW of electricity with gas but these are lying idle only due to the non-availability of gas. He said that industrial sector of Punjab has to compete not only with its regional but also with competitors within the country as gas and electricity is available to the industrial sector of other provinces whereas these commodities are scarce and costly in Punjab.
Continuing SVP said that the value added textile exports recorded a phenomenal increase of 23 percent during the first year of GSP Plus status but immediately after that the Government failed to meet our gas requirements in addition to imposing GIDC and other taxes which further escalated our cost of production and it is only due to this reason that our exports are continuously declined for the last four months.
He said that govt has taken a positive step to import LNG which has kindled a hope to overcome the energy crisis provided it was supplied to the captive power plants on priority basis to run their units and supplying surplus capacity of 2000 MW to the national grid. Quoting the example of FESCO, Syed Zia said, this company utilised the available electricity most efficiently. The loadshedding in Faisalabad was six hours per day during the last year which was reduced to four hours and now there is zero loadshedding for the industrial sector. However, the gas supply has been further curtailed from 33 to 17 percent adding to the miseries of the value added textile sector. He said that govt should set its priorities otherwise the industrial sector will become further uncompetitive and Pakistan will become only an outlet of foreign products.
VP FCCI, Jamil Ahmad highlighted the importance of innovation and diversification of exportable surplus and said that we must concentrate on non-traditional markets with focused approach to export non-traditional items. He also stressed the need for the commercialisation of innovative technologies developed by our research institutes and said that it is the only solution to increase our exports in the international markets. He said that India is very efficient in signing FTAs/PTAs with the important countries which has provided Indian exporters open and free markets for their exports. He said that our govt should also negotiate and sign maximum FTAs/PTAs to give quantum jump to our exports.
Former President Engineer Rizwan Ashraf stressed the need for Energy act and said that Pakistan has hydel potential of 50,000 MW but for this purpose we have to conceive long term policies. He said that we are already late in importing gas to meet our domestic need and stressed to expedite the process for early import of LNG/LPG and gas from Iran.
Samina, instructor of NIM Karachi said that Faisalabad is most important city of Pakistan after Karachi and their visit to FCCI has given us an opportunity to the participants of 18th senior management course to fully understand the issues of the business community. She said that their visit will also help the participants to take prudent decisions particularly regarding economic issues during their practical life. During Question Answer Session, Abdul Qayyum Sheikh, Rao Sikandar Azam Khan and others raised interesting questions while Abdul Qayyum Sheikh former President FCCI presented a special memento to Samina.