LCCI to continue supplementing govt endeavors for economic revival

LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Malik Tahir Javaid, Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid and Vice President Zeshan Khalil said economic challenged could be coped through partnership between government and the private sector.

In a joint statement issued here on Saturday, they said the LCCI would continue to play its role and supplement the government endeavors aimed at economic revival of the country. It has already started spade work to identify the challenges, being faced by the trade & industry, added the statement.

They said there were a number of issues that must be tackled on priority: the biggest one was how to keep the momentum of growth in the wake of a less than targeted growth of agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The second one was the widening gap between exports and imports that could be contained by enhancing exports, the added.

The office-bearers said the government would also have to focus on agriculture, manufacturing sector, education, water, human resource, minerals, public health, tax collection system. Ending corruption should be focused to get rid of economic worries, they suggested.

The LCCI representatives said agriculture was the largest sector of Pakistan as around 43% labor was dependent on agriculture. They said this largest sector needs revolutionary changes on war-footing. They said growth of agriculture sector would not only ensure food security and provision of raw material to the largest export-oriented industry, textile, but would also generate huge revenue for the government and vast employment opportunities.

They said the country's population was growing at the rate of 2.10 per cent and if this growth rate continues during the next two decades, population would cross the mark of 240 million.

They said Pakistan needed to increase the per acre yield on steady pace; therefore, the government should plan to bring that nine million hectors of fertile land under cultivation which had been useless just because of shortage of water.

They said Pakistan had great mineral resources worth trillions of dollars that can help realise the dream of economic stability. These resources should be fully utilised for economic uplift of the country and local companies should be given priority for mining.

The LCCI office-bearers also stressed the need for developing regional, product-specific and target-oriented marketing strategy.