Daily Times

Pakistan must carve out a new strategy to minimise imports through the development of the import substitution industry on a fast-track basis to overcome the ill impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war on Pak economy, said Engineer Ahmad Hassan Chairman FCCI standing committees on Research & Development and CPEC.

Addressing the joint meeting of the two standing committees, he said that current global GDP is 84 trillion dollars. “Out of it the share of Russia is around 3.11pc”, he said and added that this war has created complicated and multiple issues of inflation and supply chain in addition to aggravating the economy related worries of the third world countries.

He said that volatile economies like Pakistan would have to face major issues although; these are not directly linked with this war. He said that Pakistan should minimise its dependence on imports by developing its industry consisting of steel and production of machinery at local level. He also quoted the example of Vietnam and said, “Its exports have jumped to 36b dollars only due to indigenization and we must follow this model to achieve economic stability.”

Engineer Ahmad Hassan said, “Pakistan needs dynamic, creative and visionary young entrepreneurs and in this connection, we need a quality business institute like LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences).” He said that the R & D committee is contemplating arranging a series of awareness lectures by renowned scholars on young entrepreneurs, human resource, LEAN and solar energy.

The meeting also discussed a wide range of global, regional and national level issues including shortage of water, global warming, value addition of locally produced raw material.

The meeting was also attended by Dr. Khurram Tariq, Engineer Asim Munir, Dr. Muhammad Arif and Dr. Asif Javed.