ISLAMABAD: The business community was playing important role in generating economic activities and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) would fully cooperate in resolving their key issues.
This was said by Islamabad Deputy Mayor Syed Zeeshan Ali Naqvi while addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said efforts would be made to form a joint committee comprising representatives of ICCI and MCI/CDA to review the high charges on the construction of additional floors in markets.
He said MCI would launch an awareness campaign to educate the citizens about the importance of land designing and well-designed constructions. He said the business community should consider building multi-storey parking plazas on a public-private partnership basis to cope with parking issues in markets. He agreed that there should be only one agency to regulate the businesses as regulation by multiple agencies was creating a problem for the business community.
He said the issue of stamp paper value and other highlighted issues would be taken up with relevant authorities for redress.
Speaking at the occasion, ICCI President Sheikh Amir Waheed said that more than 90 per cent issues of traders and industrialists were related to CDA and MCI and both organisations should cooperate in addressing issues to facilitate the growth of business activities.
He said CDA had agreed in principle to allow additional storey in markets, but very high charges were imposed due to which construction of such storey was not a viable option. He stressed that CDA should reduce these charges in consultation with ICCI.
He said 8 agencies were regulating businesses in the federal capital due to which businessmen were facing many problems and emphasised that there should be one single agency for this purpose. He said MCI and CDA should pay urgent attention to resolve the melody food park issues as businesses were closing in that park due to non-redress of problems.
ICCI SVP Muhammad Naveed and VP Nisar Ahmed Mirza said that local markets were lacking in basic facilities like parking, filtration plants, public toilets and MCI/CDA should take measures to provide these facilities in markets. They said trade license fee should be revised to make it affordable for traders. M Ejaz Abbasi, Khalid Chaudhry, Ch Ashraf Farzand and others also highlighted various issues of traders and industrialists that needed urgent attention of MCI and CDA.
