Chairman Nishat Group and leading businessman of the country Mian Muhammad Mansha said on Wednesday that jobs creation in the country is possible only if we portray a positive image of the country at international level and let the businessmen work. Mansha said this while addressing the audience at 'Pakistan Leadership Conversation' jointly organised by the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) and British Council. He called for spreading positive image of the country instead of talking about corruption all the time. He suggested the government to keep its size small and improve its relationship with the world.
"As chartered accountants, you are influential people. When you meet politicians, bureaucrats, armed forces and other segments of the society, tell them that let the people work." He said that our focus should be on jobs creation.
"Pakistan has progressed a lot in the field of telecommunication and power sector. Every government relied heavily on the loans instead of reviewing its assets and potential," he commented.
Mansha further said that after every seven to eight years, we have to approach International Monterey Fund because the real problem is never cured. "We have leakages in our system. The biggest leakage is in our power transmission system. We have circular debt of billions of rupees. The only way to solve this problem is to bring competition in power sector."
He was of the view that if the government was unable to privatize the power transmission companies then at it least it should create an atmosphere of competitiveness. By giving the example of Delhi where line losses were 58 percent, he said the government brought TATA, Reliance and other companies in power transmission and the line losses reduced to 8 percent. Mian believed that political stability can revive the economy.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat said that inefficiency in government and in the size of the government was really a big concern. Over the last ten years in Punjab government has built the debt of Rs447 billion in wheat business alone, in buying, storing and selling of wheat.
He said most of the money goes in refinancing of the debt stocks, towards banking sector, storage, pilferage and spirit of wheat procurement of benefiting the farmers were never achieved. However, the minister said this year the government has significantly brought it down by plugging in the inefficiencies of the system.
"We believed in increasing the private sector role while government role should be just of facilitator. So when we talk about ease of doing business is more about the World Bank ranking," he said.
However, the government has looked it with more holistic approach. First time in Punjab, the government is looking each and every regulation with business orientation, he added.
Hashim Jawan said the government was also looking its main resource generating items, where from it can raise revenue generations and what type of measures required for it. "Punjab is province of land and we have to unlock the potential of cities for revenue generation," he said adding that by providing ease of doing business, growth stimulus will move towards the private sector and it should be.
The minister believed that the role of the private sector is lead from front and the government primary role was the facilitator to the private sector. Government engine could not absorb the million jobs and youth of the nation, rather the private sector can give employment to them, he said.
The finance minister said Pakistan missed the early opportunity of industrialisation in which world moved from agrarian society to industrialised society. However, now in the new age of digitisation both government and private sector should play their role of innovators for leap frog growth. But in innovation fundamentals of business remain the same and the integrity would be more valued, he added.