ISLAMABAD: Economic growth and enhanced standard of living of the masses are positively correlated with national industrial activity; therefore, the government should focus on the development of the manufacturing sector, a business leader said on Monday. Rich nations created a high-quality manufacturing base over the last several hundred years to gain wealth and power, he added.
We must understand that from the rise of the UK in the 19th century to the rise of the US, Germany, Japan and the USSR in the 20th century, to the newly industrializing countries like Korea, Taiwan, and now China, manufacturing has been the key to their prosperity, said former president ICCI, Atif Ikram Sheikh.
He said that manufacturing is a major source of jobs, contributor to a significant portion of taxes, the driver for innovation and tool to meet many national challenges.
Sheikh added that lack of supportive policies discourage manufacturing sector, leaving the country with a wide trade deficit as imports outstrip exports resulting in the perpetual balance of payment problem.
He said that rising poverty and falling exports can be tackled by paying due attention to the overtaxed and declining industrial sector which has been ignored since long, leading to economic weakness and other problems.
He called for reforming the tax regime relieving manufacturing sector of the undue burden, protecting local industry from unfair competition, barring under-invoicing and introducing proper taxation for agriculture and real estate, can improve the situation.
He said that discouraging speculative trading and encourage genuine investors can also divert some funds to the manufacturing sector which are presently consumed by real estate and the stock market.
We can only meet most of the future challenges and brace competition with other countries if we have a solid manufacturing base, he said.
