INDUSTRIAL and trading community has asked the government to formulate long-term and consistent policies for swift revival of industry and considerable improvement in exports.
Talking to a traders’ delegation on Saturday, Pakistan Industrial and Traders Association Front (PIAF) Chairman Mian Nauman Kabir said that Pakistan’s exports have remained stagnant for a long time and unless attention was paid to factors hampering industrial and export growth, the country might not achieve the desired results.
Similar views have also been expressed in the latest report titled “Regional Economic Outlook Update, Arising from the Pandemic: Building Forward Better” released by the IMF on Saturday, which says the economy will experience a sluggish recovery in 2021, while foreign investors have not yet returned in significant volumes.
The woes of our economic planners and decision-makers are compounded by the renewed upsurge in Covid-19 infections that are forcing the authorities to take measures that would negatively impact the economy.
However, there are firm expectations among business circles that the new Finance Minister Hamad Azhar, who also looked after the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Industry and Production, would come out with a realistic plan in the next budget to give a boost to the industrial and agricultural sectors as per vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Hammad Azhar, as an elected member, is also fully aware of the aspirations and needs of the masses, for whom rising inflation is the most important issue.
He delivered in his previous assignments to the expectations of the leadership and it is hoped that his professional acumen would be reflected in the coming budgetary proposals.
The trust that the Prime Minister has reposed in Hammad Azhar is not without reason as the energetic Minister has been working hard to help carry out the economic agenda of the PTI Government.
However, no policy can produce the desired results if it is not formulated with required input from all stakeholders.
It is time, the Minister and his team enters into intensive interaction with representatives of different segments of the society to solicit their opinion on the best course to address challenges being faced by different sectors.
Such brainstorming sessions would help the Government devise a strategy to strike a balance between the need to increase revenue collection and provide maximum possible relief and incentives to different sectors and segments of the society.
A general review of the Government’s overall policy is long due as regular attempts to increase oil prices along with hikes in power and gas tariffs would ultimately harm the government’s overall aim of reducing cost of production in the country.
