"Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is conducting census of manufacturing industries 2015-2016 with technical support from the Urban Unit in geo tagging of industries." The Bureau's Deputy Director General, Dr Jan stated this while speaking at a workshop held to discuss the benefits of manufacturing industries census. The manufacturing industries need to be registered with the Federal Board of Revenue to define a tracking mechanism, he said.
The workshop was organized by the Urban Unit, in partnership with Lahore Chamber and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, under the Punjab Spatial Strategy Project. The LCCI representatives, officials from Ministry of Industries, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics officers, academia, business community members, relevant staff from Planning & Development department and senior officers of the Urban Unit attended the consultative workshop.
"Industrialisation and urbanisation are the real challenges faced by all developing countries at present. We should plan cities to provide maximum residences whereas our planning currently is not focused. Resultantly, our cities have become unmanaged and urban issues are multiplying day by day," he added. The role of industrial growth in planning the cities well cannot be underestimated, said Dr Nasir Javed, CEO of the Urban Unit while speaking on the occasion.
Director General Industries Department Khalid Sajeel said the manufacturing sector has yet to emerge forcefully as it has remained constrained by poor business environment, low skilled labor and failure to diversify production and move up the value chain.
LCCI President Abdul Basit stressed the need for organising and developing the present 40,000 manufacturing industries since these contribute 65 percent of total industrial share in our context. Further, he said that there should be stronger focus on value-addition in manufacturing, which at present is lower than that in comparator countries.
The share of manufacturing investment in total fixed investment has also been rapidly decreasing since 2000 (especially for large firms), thereby contributing to low industrial development in Punjab.