Daily Times

Ferozepur Road Industrial Association (FRIA) has asked the government to work on a fast track plan to address expansive energy issue and priority should be given to the value-added industry in this regard.

The PIAF leader and FRIA Senior Vice Chairman Shahbaz Aslam said that industry’s core issue is the high cost of doing business, which the government needed to bring down to bring the local as well as the export industry at par with global competitors. The FRIA leader urged for increasing ease of doing business, lowering cost of production, paying early refunds to solve liquidity crunch, relaxing import policy for industrial raw material, and equalizing the energy tar­iff across the country.

Shahbaz Aslam said Pakistan was at 147 out of 190 countries on the global ranking of doing business mainly due to bureaucratic hurdles. He said various provincial departments, including EOBI, Social Security, Women Welfare, Environment Department were playing a negative role and treating the manufacturers and exporters like criminals. He called for giving a boost to the export sector by adopting diversified marketing techniques and extending practical support to the industry, and asked the exporters to prepare themselves for meeting the global challenges so that exports could be enhanced by fully exploiting new opportunities. He also stressed the need for adopting new technology so that Pakistan’s exports may be able to cope with the emerging challenges in international arena.

Shahbaz Aslam urged the government to undertake thorough research and also brief the SMEs of the details of such challenges. He hoped that the government would help boost country’s exports, while all the macro and micro issues of the trade and commerce should also be addressed. He said that growth of economy was a must to steer the industry of worse situation and contribute to the exports of the country. He observed that the domestic industry should be allowed to grow while enjoying the right to avail opportunities against the competitors. The businessmen leader said the benefits of the GSP Plus status can only be harvested by maximum value-addition in finished products rather than exporting only raw materials, which cannot be possible without relaxation in import policies.

He said that business community has been facing tough challenges because of limited business. In this context, he sought attention of the government for formulation of regional, provincial and central level task force, and formulation of sector wise regional policies which would help the government address the problems confronted by exporters. He called for promoting industrialisation and enhancing exports through lowering cost of production, paying early refunds to solve liquidity crunch and relaxing import policy for industrial raw material. He asked the government to appreciate the role of industry for its potential to harvest maximum benefits, providing mass employment to the jobless population of the country. He also sought government’s attention for formulating aggressive marketing plan and hurdle-free policies as well as urgent decisions in favor of exports while taking on board major stakeholders.