LAHORE: Punjab industrialists and traders have termed 2020 a year of pains and gains as Covid-19 pandemic had put national economy under intense pressure but after lifting of lockdown the economic indicators continue to show encouraging signs of improvement.

Industrialists and traders expressed their views during a webinar arranged by Sheikhupura Chamber of Commerce and Industry and president of the chamber Adil Mahmood was moderator of the webinar here On Sunday. Initiating the discussion during the webinar, Adil Mahmood said 2020 created many challenges and opportunities for the business community. He believed that government policies triggered promising economic recovery despite the testing times of industrial closure during the lockdown. He said the improvement in economic indicators has been acknowledged by the international organizations as according to a recently released Asian Development Bank (ADB) report on development outlook, the national economy has been getting better during the pandemic.

Adil Mahmood said the report quotes "Pakistan's economy is recovering, particularly in the manufacturing and construction sectors, supported by the government emergency relief," said the report, a regular supplement to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020. He said recently released data by State Bank of Pakistan showed that national economy is heading towards stable and smooth growth despite enormous challenges thrown by the pandemic.

Referring to another positive development, Adil Mahmood said total current account surplus during the first five months of the current fiscal year from July to November rose to 1.6 billion US dollars against a deficit of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars during the same period last year. He said the current account balance turned surplus because of prudent and timely policies adopted by the government to maintain a healthy balance between imports and exports.

Appreciating the role of Oversees Pakistan in stabilization of economy, he said sustainability in remittances provided a great breathing space to the government and resulted in strengthening of Pakistani rupee against the dollar due to less demand from importers and considerable inflows of the greenback into the country. Adil Mahmood urged the government to form investors' friendly policies for prodding the Oversees Pakistanis to make investment in industrial sector instead of real estate as workers' remittances maintained a strong momentum, remaining above two billion US dollars for a record sixth consecutive month in November. "The remittances grew to 2.34 billion US dollars, up 2.4 percent over the previous month and 28.4 percent over November 2019, according to the recently released statistics of the State Bank of Pakistan and such amount was invested in industrial sector the country would make a quick progress in all sectors like reducing joblessness and giving impetus to circulation of money thus trickling down benefits to non-privileged class," Adil Mahmood elaborated.

Referring to increase in taxes, Mian Farooq, senior member of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said although government needs money to run affairs but an increase should be made keeping in view the strength of the tax payers. "The long closure of industries in the wake of Covid-19 lockdown has crippled the economy but now it is taking momentum for growth," he said.

Manzoor Malik, FPCCI leader, said a growth of over six percent was witnessed in large scale manufacturing in October 2020 as compared to the same month of last year. He said "Exports have increased to US dollars 9.732 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year as compared to US dollars 9.545 billion a year earlier, according to the official statistics."

Rehmat Ullah Javed, Saarc Chamber founding member, said the industrialists and traders have pooled their efforts to save the lower classes of the society from the adverse impact of COVID-19 and supporting local businesses to run the wheel of the already struggling economy.

Regarding the inflation of price hike, Imran Dawood of APTMA senior member said "we are an import-based economy, which is one of the main factors of inflation and solution to problem in making all-out efforts to switch from the import-based economy to export-based by strengthening the local industries and controlling price hike."

Mian Faheem Qamar of Sundar paper industry said Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) remained one of the best performing markets in Asia during the pandemic. The market fell to its lowest towards the end of March this year due to uncertainties and qualms caused by the coronavirus news. However, it picked up gradually after that, with the key index reaching above the 43,000-mark in December from the 27,000-mark in March.

Ateequr Rehman of carpet industry said the last year was time of pains and gains.

LCCI senior member Asim Siddiqui said industrialist have reposed their trust in the government and worked hard to come out of the crisis.

Providing solution to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19, LCCI senior member Ali Hussam said the government should accelerate implementation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. "Pakistan's Board of Investment statistics say around 40,000 Pakistani employees was working for the CPEC-related projects during the pandemic" he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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