Press Release

Pakistan needs to cash its precious resources

Pakistan desperately needs to cash on its unparallel strategic location and vast mineral resources as at this point, we are not there where we should be. Fast changing global state of affairs has brought a lot of opportunities which should not be loosed as did in the past.  This was upshot of the speeches of the LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed delivered to a high-powered delegation of National Security Workshop, National Defence University here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Monday. The LCCI Executive Committee Members were also present on the occasion.

Sheikh Muhammad Arshad and Nasir Saeed shared their expertise with the visiting officers on economic challenges, energy, federal budget, trade deficit, Pak-China Economic Corridor and millennium development goals. The LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that Pakistan is a resourceful country and has the ability, not only become the regional leader but can also play a decisive role at global level.

He said that Pakistan is 4^th largest producer of cotton & milk, 8^th largest producer of wheat and 10^th largest country of rice producer while it has 10^th biggest human resources. Despite having these resources country is still an economically challenged country.   The LCCI President said that strong public-private partnership can help surmounting the unprecedented economic challenges being faced by the country. The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry would continue its untiring efforts in this regard.

He said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry aims to promote trade and investment in the country through enacting upon the policies of the government and securing a business friendly environment in the country.

The LCCI President said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry also tries to secure a business-friendly environment through sharing views with the government. The primary objective of LCCI is to protect the interests of the business community while remaining committed to the cause of development of the country.

He said that there are a number of issues that must be tackled on priority, the biggest one is how to keep the momentum of growth in the wake of a less than targeted growth of the Agriculture and the Manufacturing sector. The second one is the widening gap between exports and imports that could be contained by reducing import of luxury items.

Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that the cut in the low input cost would make Pakistani products competitive in the international market where Pakistan was loosing the international markets to China, India and even Bangladesh.

The LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Hyder stressed the need for developing regional, product specific and target oriented marketing strategy. New markets and new products need to be explored to reduce country’s dependence on few commodities and countries. He said that Pakistan’s exports are highly concentrated in few items. Such concentration in few markets can also become a source for instability in export earnings.

Almas Hyder said that after through debate that feedback is refined and after approval from Executive Committee is sent in the form of Budget Proposals to Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs for consideration at the time of preparation of the Federal Budget.

He said that Chamber monitors the budget, anomalies are identified and these coupled with revised proposals are again communicated to the relevant policy making departments. He said that the LCCI also keeps liaison with foreign missions commercial sections and an exchange of information ensured especially sector reports.

While briefing the participants about the LCCI’s role in policy making, the LCCI Vice President Nasir Saeed said that the LCCI has more than 100 sector specific Standing Committees. These committees collect private sector feedback, analyze and filter the same through subject experts.

The LCCI office-bearers said that the LCCI is also quite conscious of its social role. He said that the LCCI has a self-sustaining project LABARD on its credit. They said that LABARD is not only acting as placement body for the disabled sections of the society but also provides relevant training to the young minds in an effort to rehabilitate them.

Head of the Delegation urged the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry to continue to play its role for economic uplift of the country as its positive input at this point in time can do the miracles.

While lauding the role being played by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in removing the bottlenecks in the way of promotion of business, he said that a lot has yet to be done for the economic well-being of the country and its people.