LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Almas Hyder has called for representation of the private sector in policymaking to ensure immediate treatment to the economic issues.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the LCCI president said being the most important stakeholder, the private sector must have proper representation in policymaking teams.
He said that the business community has fertile ideas both for businesses and economy but these cannot be decoded until and unless the private sector has representation in the supreme forums.
Almas Hyder said that government should make necessary legislation in this regard as the health of economic indicators was not good at the moment.
“The health of leading economic indicators including ease of doing business, manufacturing, stock market, gross domestic product, income and expenditure, unemployment rate, consumer price index, currency strength, availability of energy, debts, balance of trade and foreign exchange reserves, is not good and needs immediate treatment as these are directly linked to the economic prosperity and also to the foreign investors’ sentiments,” he remarked.
If these indicators improve, it would attract huge foreign direct investment, build confidence of local investors, increase remittances and turn the country into a hub of manufacturing and economic activities, the LCCI president added.
He said that manufacturing activities strongly influences the GDP, an increase in which boosts the state revenue and generates employment opportunities. He said that industrial production growth rate averaged 5.32pc from 1990 to 2018, adding that the government should facilitate the manufacturing sector and resolve its major obstacles like the availability of cheap energy and early refunds etc. to achieve the growth rate target.
