President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi has urged that the key issues of the business community should be addressed to facilitate them in business promotion that would help revive the economy. He said that weak decision making as a nation has deprived Pakistan from realizing its actual economic potential.
While addressing as Chief Guest of the ICCI Vice Presidents Awards Ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr, Islamabad on Friday, Dr. Arif Alvi said that South Korea adopted the economic plan of Dr. Mehboob ul Haq and achieved fast economic growth, but Pakistan could not take benefit of it. He urged the business community to play a role for uplifting the deprived segments of the society and economic empowerment of women.
The President further said that 20.7 million children in Pakistan were out of school and emphasized that the business community should play a role to bring them to schools to make them productive citizens of the country. He said that investment in employable sectors of the economy would create more jobs and reduce poverty.
He said that the private sector should provide jobs to the persons with disabilities to engage them in productive activities.
Speaking on the occasion, , President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari said that the former Vice Presidents ICCI have rendered useful services for the business community and the purpose of organizing the award ceremony was to acknowledge their role. He stressed that the government should give awards to highest taxpayers to acknowledge their role.
He said that instead of putting more burden on the existing taxpayers, the government should reduce high tax rates and expand taxbase to improve tax revenue.
The ICCI President said that the IT, export-oriented and tourism sectors should be given more focus to improve exports and tourism. He said that the President of Pakistan should play a role in the signing of a charter of economy by all the political parties to ensure consistency in economic policies. He said that ICCI was striving for a new industrial zone and expo center in Islamabad and stressed that the government should cooperate in materialization of these projects.
