Daily Times

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that industrial and business development is the top priority of the government and in this connection all available resources were being utilized for sustainable growth and increase in national exports. Addressing the annual general meeting of All Pakistan Bed-sheets and Upholstery Manufacturers Association (APBUMA) at a local hotel here, he said that all stakeholders of the textile sector brought laurel for Pakistan at global level.

He said that the coronavirus pandemic had badly jolted the world. The global economy squeezed but due to prudent policies of the PTI government, economic and business activities flourished as the Prime Minister Imran Khan preferred smart lockdown despite a lot of pressure from the opposition. He said that during the coronavirus pandemic exports of India and Bangladesh lagged behind but our exports increased and Pakistani GDP witnessed 4.5 percent growth as the Prime Minister took necessary steps to keep the industrial wheel running in the country.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was the only leader who had the ability to look beyond the wall. He realized well before time that the lives of poor laborers and daily wage earners would be further miserable if we closed our businesses. Farrukh Habib said that we were not in favor of temporary growth.

Our focus was on sustainable growth of the economy and we were moving towards this target gradually.

We were increasing productivity and capacity and were reluctant to run everything on the credit card system.

He said that foreign remittances were also a big source of economic sustainability and in this connection, overseas Pakistan had sent 30 billion dollars to Pakistan this year and we were trying to increase this amount up to 35-billion-dollar next year. He said that the dollar inflow of all our sectors was 60 billion, which was 50 billion during the tenure of the previous government. Similarly, 2.5 billion dollars had reached the Roshan Digital account and it was also witnessing a substantial increase daily.

Export of goods and services was also expected to reach 39 billion dollars, he added. The state minister said that he was well aware of the problems being confronted by the industrial, export and business sectors and he will soon call on Prime Minister Imran Khan and Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tareen to address these issues openly. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan himself was very active in redressing problems of the trade and business community. The PM also took industrialists and businessmen along with him on trips to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan where he met Pakistanis.

He also acknowledged their potential and offered them to set up industries in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan where they would be provided all possible facilities.

Farrukh Habib said that the government took special measures to provide maximum facilities to the industrialists, traders and businessmen during the coronavirus pandemic. All this was done to increase business activities as the PTI government believes that the economy will be strong if the business goes on.

He said that the government had increased the loan limit under the Kamyab Jawan programme. For this purpose, the government had allotted Rs100 billion in addition to releasing refunds of Rs250 billion. The state minister said that we were also working on food security.

Pakistan had 220 million acres of land but out of it only 50 million acres are under cultivation. Now this land is being increased to cultivate food items on maximum land to cater to our domestic needs. He said that we gave a relief package to the construction industry which also helped to run activities of 120 other sectors.He said that the government was also introducing the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to make next elections transparent through which overseas Pakistanis will also be given the right to vote.

Referring to Pandora Papers, Farrukh Habib said that it mentions people from all over the world.

However, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s position in this regard was very clear that if any Pakistani was nominated in this paper, action will be taken against him without any discrimination, he added. Chairman APBUMA Ehsaan Malik, Senior Vice Chairman Engineer Bilal Jameel, Vice Chancellor National Textile University Faisalabad (NTUF) Prof Dr. Tanveer Ali, Former President FPCCI Mian Muhammad Idrees, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) Atif Muneer Sheikh and a large number of industrialists, traders and businessmen were also present on the occasion.