President SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik Friday termed the federal Budget 2022-23 balanced, growth- and export-oriented with a basket of attractive package of incentives to accelerate the economic activities across the country. In a statement, he hailed the reforms introduced for ease of doing business. He said that remarkable measures announced in the budget would help set a proper direction of the national economy to flourish in the days to come as well as ameliorate a lot of poor segments of society. He said economic indicators would show an upward trend and the GDP growth would improve significantly with better remittances. He added that it’s established phenomenon that survival of a state mainly rested with sound economy. He hoped that Pakistan would progress in every sphere of life following the prudent economic policies. He said the wise decision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would ultimately provide solace to business community, while a cushion of packages would help accelerate the economic activities in the country and boost exports. Iftikhar Ali Malik said that Pakistan’s economy was going through a challenging phase due to global warming and Russia-Ukraine conflict, adding that manufacturers, traders, retailers, importers, exporters and other business community were in distress and facing huge financial losses due to current political upheaval. However, he said the government took extraordinary bold decisions to overcome the crisis. He said it was dire a need of the hour to use modern techniques for increasing per acre yield, adding that the government allocated record funds for research and development activities to put the Agri-sector on modern scientific lines by using hi-tech hybrid seeds. Iftikhar Malik hoped that all irritants if any in the budget would be removed to the satisfaction of the business community which was the source of financial strength of the government.