ICCI for channeling remittances towards investment, productive activities

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday urged the  government to take policy measures and offer good incentives for channeling remittances towards the investment and productive activities.

It said that channeling the remittances towards investment would help in promoting business activities and improving economic growth of the country.

In a joint statement President, Ahmed Hassan Mughal, Senior Vice President Rafat Farid  and Vice President Iftikhar Anwar Sethi said that remittances this year have exceeded $21 billion that showing an increase of 9% compared to the same period of last year that was very encouraging.

However, they urged the government to take concrete measures to develop required expertise and institutional mechanism to channel the remittances towards the investment and productive activities.

They said that remittances were an important source of economic well being for a large number of families in the country and were helping in boosting consumption that benefited our industries.

However, they said that remittances could play more effective role for the economy if their major portion was channeled towards savings and investment.

They said due to encouraging policies, many expatriate Chinese and Indians have returned to their home countries to start business ventures and Pakistan should also take necessary measures to facilitate Overseas Pakistanis to invest and start business ventures in their home country.

They were of the view that many Sub-Saharan African countries have improved GDP and economic growth rate by diverting remittances towards savings and investment.

Therefore, it was high time that Pakistan should take solid measures to enhance the share of remittances towards SMEs in the country, they added.

They said that Pakistan was receiving more remittances than foreign direct investment and development assistance, thus increasing their share into savings instruments would help in developing capital markets and providing more funds for productive endeavors.