'Economic growth hinges on good governance'

Economic growth hinges on implementation of good governance and the government needs to revisit all its economic policies while taking private sector onboard, said Acting President, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Sheikh Mohammad Arshad.
He was addressing a large gathering of Mall Road Traders led by Naeem Mir, here on Tuesday. LCCI Executive Committee member Mian Zahid Javaid was also present.
The acting president LCCI said that it was very unfortunate that a country that had all the resources in abundance was fast heading towards a point of no return only because of unavailability of a mechanism for implementation of government policies. All the policies would give desired results if they were made in consultation with concerned stakeholders and all others made in isolation would definitely not work the way they should.
Arshad said that Pakistan was the fourth largest cotton producing country of the world while they have the fifth and third largest reserves of gold and copper and coal respectively.
According to a rough estimate, value of our coal reserves is around $3 trillion that is 187 times more than the GDP of Pakistan. It could also be an eye-opener that worth of our coal reserves is higher than the combined oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Only 2 percent of Pakistan's coal reserves could generate 20,000 MW electricity for almost 50 years but still Pakistani people and industries were facing acute power shortage. Pakistan is under the burden of over $58 billion external debts and country is rolling towards the economic bankruptcy. He said early construction of water reservoirs is only solution to ongoing energy crisis and the government should utilise all its resources to generate cheaper electricity.