FAISALABAD: Young and dynamic bureaucrats must make policy decisions with open heart and mind without any influence, said Dr Khurram Tariq, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).
Addressing the participants of the 37th Mid-Career course of the National Institute of Management (NIM) Lahore, he said that evolution has made it compulsory to synchronize new ideas and out-of-box solutions with futuristic vision to facilitate the public at large.
He said that as the ground realities are changing at a faster pace, the under-training officers must start budgeting from zero without any consideration of prevailing perceptions and notions. He said that what happened last year is now irrelevant and we must exploit our own inherent capabilities to make appropriate decisions regarding policy making.
About CSR, he said that we are not competing with any other chamber but we have our own priorities to serve the deprived segments of the society. He said that FCCI has taken the responsibility to provide missing facilities in labour welfare schools in addition to their up gradation.
He said that currently three different ministries are involved in labour-related issues. “Sindh has brought all these facilities under one ministry”, he said and added that we must replicate this model in Punjab to avoid duplication and get better results.
Showing concern over higher drop out ration of high school students, he suggested introducing technical and IT skills in the syllabus of matriculation so that the dropped-out students could start their own businesses.
He said that Faisalabad is the second largest educational city after Lahore and they have invited the Vice chancellors to educate and train the human resource with a futuristic vision. He lamented that they had no “skill mapping” and the courses currently introduced in different universities would become irrelevant when the students would complete their degree program. Hence, we must adopt a futuristic vision to train our precious asset of human resource.
Responding to a question about FIEDMC, he said that it is a 15 years old project but only 10% colonization and 20% development works have been completed so far. He said that it is a clear and typical example of our bureaucratic attitude.
About the revival of the textile sector, President FCCI said that the government should not create hurdles and recover the actual cost of the electricity. “We are not demanding any subsidy,” he said and added that it would be unjustified to charge us the power pilferage of other Discos. He said that the recovery rate of FESCO is 99.2% but we are subjected to unfair uniform tariffs on the pretext of a political economy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023