Punjab government is making all-out efforts to turn province into a hub of economic activities. It is not only the energy shortage but education, health and transportation sectors are also being given equal importance to put the economy back on track.
Advisor to Chief Minister Punjab on Trade Affairs, Mohammad Ali Mian stated this while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday. He said that the Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif was well aware of the discrimination in supply of gas being done with the industry in Punjab and has taken up the issue with the authorities at Federal level. On the electricity issue, the Punjab Chief Minister has given a set of both short-term and long-term doable and practical proposals to the Federal government.
He said that the dream of rapid development cannot be realised without education and the Punjab government is not only developing infrastructure to international levels but also laying a network of educational institutions in the province for this purpose.
Mian said that the provincial government believes in public-private partnership and is taking business community on board on every issue. He said that a high-profile business community committee is being formed at provincial level that would help solve the day-to-day issues being faced by the trade and industry.
He said that the Inspector General of Police and District co-ordination Officer (DCO) would be the members of that committee. He urged the LCCI office bearers to forward names of four members of the LCCI for that committee. Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that due to a discriminatory attitude towards the provision of gas to the industry in Punjab and an acute shortage of electricity, the economic challenges are deepening with every passing day therefore the Punjab government would have to attach top priority to these issues.
He also raised the issue of labour inspections saying that at a time when the industry in Punjab was facing multiple challenges, the decision to allow labour inspections would only open up the floodgates of corruption. He said that the situation was so pathetic that industrial units in the province could not get gas for 65 days in the last 78 days.
He said that only because of unavailability of gas, an acute shortage of power, all-time high mark-up and a higher cost of doing business not only the industrial productions have nose-dived but there are hardly any business activities in the markets. The LCCI President said that how an industrialist would be able to run an industrial unit when on the one hand he was faced with multiple internal and external challenges and on the other a labour inspector is sitting on his head and asking for unnecessary employment details and documents.
He said that there was no need of labour inspections as most of the industrial units generally meet international standards therefore the government should review the decision and constitute a committee in collaboration with the Lahore Chamber to look into the need of having any inspection of any industrial unit in the province.