Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Malik Tahir Javed has urged the government to get rid of the obstacles which are hindering the growth of businesses. While speaking at a reception for newly-elected office-bearers of All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association, the LCCI President stressed the need for taking the stakeholders on board while making rules and regulations relating to trade and industry which would help increase GDP growth rate that is moving around 4.71 percent.
Javed said all the policies would yield desired results if evolved in consultation with the concerned stakeholders. Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producing country of the world while we have the fifth and third largest reserves of gold and copper and coal respectively, he said. According to a rough estimate, value of our coal reserves is around $3 trillion that is 187 times more than the GDP of Pakistan. It can also be an eye-opener that worth of our coal reserves is higher than the combined oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Only 2 percent of Pakistani coal reserves could generate 20,000MW of electricity for almost 50 years, he added.
He said early construction of water reservoirs is the only solution to generate cheaper electricity and overcome water shortage in the country. The country is also enriched with vast reserves of precious stones, gypsum, salt and marble but instead of taking full advantage of these God-gifted resources most of the share being exported in raw form and a little attention towards value-addition could do miracle for the country, he maintained.