Daily Times

FPCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh has stressed the necessity for Pakistan to develop its own indigenous, research-based, and data-driven solutions for its economic and corporate challenges.

Irfan Sheikh was speaking about the importance of policy advocacy and research in fostering industry-academia collaborations at an MoU signing event between FPCCI and LUMS on Monday. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh added that FPCCI is the apex trade body of Pakistan and LUMS is the foremost business school of the country; and, we have committed to complimentarily converge our data, technical, research, industrial linkages, and academic resources for the common objective of promoting research, analysis, and publications for the business community and economic growth of Pakistan.

President FPCCI stated that agriculture & food security, taxation reforms, issues of trade & tariffs, import-substitution, industrial productivity, energy prices & security, fiscal policy & budgetary deficit, external account management, cost & ease of doing business, promotion of SMEs, employment generation and monetary policy formulation requires the immediate attention of the industry & academia to come forward with the objective and workable solutions for the policy-making institutions.

Younus Dagha, chairman of FPCCI’s policy advisory board, elaborated that FPCCI & LUMS alliance has the potential to provide world-class policy advice for Pakistan based on the latest research & analysis tools. He specifically emphasized the need to utilize up-to-date and reliable data as that can be the real differentiation factor in making the joint efforts bear fruits. He also added that policy advocacy should be proactive in order to provide the input of stakeholders in a timely manner to be productive and result-oriented.