The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged the government to facilitate the manufacturing and exports of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
In a statement, LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Senior Vice President Ali Hussam Asghar and Vice President Mian Zahid Jawaid Ahmad said that in the current scenario of economic distress due to COVID-19, hundreds of manufacturing units related to garments, sports goods, textile, plastics and auto industry etc have seen a severe contraction of business in their traditional product lines and are shifting towards manufacturing PPEs.
They said that these units have added PPEs as their product lines.
They are providing enough products to cover local demand, and now have capacity for exports. LCCI office-bearers said that Exports of PPE gowns, face masks and face shields etc can easily fetch between 1 to 2 billion dollars if allowed. Inaction in this regard would result in surrendering this tremendous export opportunity to India, Cambodia and Bangladesh, which has a short window to capture market share.
