ICCI welcomes reopening of shops, markets

• its vicinity from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and now it was the responsibility of traders to ensure full compliance and implementation of the SOPs.
• He asked the market associations of Islamabad to ensure SOPs' implementation in their respective markets to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Monday welcomed the government's decision of reopening shops and markets as it would help in reducing the difficulties of businessmen and facilitating the people in doing the required shopping.

ICCI Senior Vice President Tahir Abbasi, in a statement, said  except for the hair salons and beauty parlours, the ICT Administration had allowed reopening of shops and markets in all major sectors of Islamabad and its vicinity from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and now it was the responsibility of traders to ensure full compliance and implementation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for businesses.

He asked the market associations of Islamabad to ensure SOPs' implementation in their respective markets to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the market associations should also install banners of precautionary measures in their respective markets otherwise those markets and shops found violative of SOPs would be closed by the administration.

The ICCI leader stressed that every shopkeeper should wear mask and not allow entry in the shop to any customer without mask. He also urged the shopkeepers to ensure social distancing at shops and in markets, besides availability of hand sanitizers in shops as well.

He said the government had allowed reopening of shops and markets to save the traders from further business loss and traders should ensure taking all precautionary measures and implementation of SOPs to save themselves and the customers from the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the only way they could help the government in saving people from the deadly virus, he added.