CHAIRING a meeting on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan reaffirmed the government’s commitment to promoting the construction sector and declare it as an industry.
Construction activities indeed are considered as one of the major sources of economic growth and development. The industry has proved to be a driving force behind the forward movement of our fraternal country Turkey. In fact promoting construction industry would yield multiple benefits for the economy as it would generate employment and offer plenty of job opportunities for millions of our unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers. Since the economy is currently passing through a period of slow growth, it is time to take tangible steps to ensure ease of doing business in construction sector which will help the economy achieve quick revival. It is heartening to note that Prime Minister Imran Khan has made developing the construction sector a main point of his government’s strategy and soon after coming to power launched the flagship Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, vowing to help the country’s long neglected stratum move from slums to the swiftly constructed flats and high-rises. Nonetheless, the regrettable part is that the progress on the mega project envisaging construction of five million houses is very slow. No significant progress is visible on the ground despite the passage of one and a half years. As the economic indicators have started showing positive trends, it is time for the government to move beyond checking deficits to the development projects especially accelerating work on the construction of houses. According to the last quarterly report of State Bank Report, the construction sector contracted by 7.6 per cent during 2019, which caused great loss to the economy. As the people are greatly hit by price hike and unemployment, time has come for the PTI government to fast track the implementation of its flagship housing program which in fact will lift up several other allied industries and really help push up the growth rate. Incentives should be given to the construction industry. The first step should be to bring down to single digit the interest rate on home construction loans.
