President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) Fareed Mughis Sheikh has urged the government to encourage and facilitate local manufacturers for CPEC projects and not to neglect them.
Patronisation of local manufacturers would help in eradicating the joblessness, poverty and hunger of remote areas like Southern Punjab, he added. Fareed Mughis Shaikh appealed to Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Minister for Industries Khurram Dastgir and Minister for Planning, Development & Reform Ahsan Iqbal to frame a viable policy to facilitate the local manufacturers.
The MCCI President Fareed Mughis Sheikh said that projects like CEPC have potential to stimulate local economy by increasing the demand of locally manufactured goods. Such increase in demand will not only allow full utilization of existing manufacturing capacity but will also encourage manufacturers to increase their capacity.
This will generate much needed employment opportunities and also contribute sizeable amount of revenue to national exchequer, he said. He said that unfortunately, local manufacturers are facing opposite situation as the Government through CGO No. 3 of 2015 effectively excluded use of locally produced goods in all power projects above 25MW. It removed the concessionary custom duties on raw materials for industry covered under SRO 565.