Meeting at Federation House: FPCCI inputs to be kept in mind while drafting commerce policy: adviser

KARACHI: Special Assistant to the Sindh Chief Minister on Commerce Faraz Abid Lakhani and his team have said that the provincial government will not formulate and announce the province’s commerce policy for 2023-27 without consultations with stakeholders and that the Federation of Pakistan Chambers and Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) will be the focal point in this regard.

In a detailed response to questions put by the office-bearers and members of the FPCCI during a meeting, they said that the feedback, proposals and recommendations from all the sectors and market segments would be incorporated into the policy to make it more effective and inclusive.

The Sindh government has the option of getting technical assistance from the USAID on the matter, they said.

President of FPCCI Irfan Iqbal Sheikh welcomed Faraz Abid Lakhani’s visit to the Federation House to seek proposals and recommendations of the business community’s apex body about the industrial and economic development of the province. He particularly praised the fact that the chief minister’s adviser had visited the FPCCI’s head office shortly after taking the charge of his office.

As head of the FPCCI he extended his full cooperation for the development of the province. He also highlighted the need for infrastructural upkeep, maintaining law and order, and reducing cost of doing business.

He was of the opinion that the investors’ confidence had been adversely affected by the lack of ease of doing business, bureaucratic red-tapism, absence of digitisation in property documentation, excessive regulations and inspections, and poor state of labour laws.

FPCCI’s Senior Vice President Suleman Chawla pointed out that industrial land had become very expensive in Karachi, and was proving to be one of the biggest impediments to establishment of new industries and expansion of the existing ones. No worthwhile industrial plot is available for less than tens of crores of rupees in Karachi. Other countries frequently offer industrial plots for free to the investors.

Former president of the FPCCI Nasser Hyat Maggo said that businessmen are constantly harassed by land-grabbers and a number of industrial properties owned by FPCCI members have been encroached upon and illegally occupied by them. “There is no way we can tread the path of rapid industrialisation and import substitution under these circumstances,” he remarked.

Engr M A Jabbar, the vice president of the FPCCI, told the meeting that successive provincial governments had failed the business community and the masses alike due to their lackluster performance vis-a-vis commerce and labour policies. He added that the bureaucracy should move beyond making presentations only and towards implementation of policies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023