Daily Times

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation-Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAARC-CCI) President Iftikhar Ali Malik said on Sunday that a stronger private sector could help Pakistan in realise its economic potential.

He said this while talking to a 20-member business delegation, led by Zafar Bakhtawari, Secretary General of United Business Group (UBG), in his office.
Malik said that the private sector could play an effective role in economic growth; generating job opportunities; promoting domestic industry, especially SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises), and boosting overall exports.

He said that Pakistan had tremendous untapped economic potential that needed to be fully exploited through viable policies, which would definitely help create new market opportunities, mobilise private investments to create more jobs and also help fight the negative impact of Covid-19 on the economy. Malik, who is also chairman of the UBG, stressed the need for reforms in light of the pandemic’s effect on the country’s private sector especially on SMEs that drive much of Pakistan’s industrial production. The SAARC-CCI President added that Pakistan could foster a more innovative, competitive and entrepreneurial economy, and reinvigorate growth by addressing critical constraints that limit private sector investment.

He was of the view that a private sector-led growth agenda needed to be equitable in a way that it benefited SMEs and offered new jobs to the youth. Malik said that office-bearers of the FPCCI (Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry) should refrain from wasting the federation’s resources. He added that the FPCCI resources must be utilised for the promotion of trade activities and welfare the business community instead of obliging the blue-eyed of those office-bearers by creating unjustifiably new posts in the FPCCI on higher packages.