KARACHI – Pakistan,s bleak economy at this crucial juncture of time since its inception in the fifth wake of Covid 19 can neither endure political turmoil nor afford political instability.
President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman United Business Group Iftikhar Ali Malik, said here on Sunday that what we need is political stability which is a prerequisite for sustained economic growth to cope with the multiple challenges in Pakistan. He said that politics of confrontation, agitation, protest, violence, and agitation is not the solution.
He said the time has changed as now the influential nations are paying more attention to financial warfare to continue their dominance. These countries are successfully using their weapons of economic destruction to weaken the economics of poor nations to achieve their unholy designs while Pakistan’s economy is not strong enough to withstand economic terrorism.
Iftikhar Ali Malik said it is indeed important to increase our exports and for that purpose, we need to reduce our cost of doing business so that our products can remain competitive in the world markets.
He further said trade facilitation is the key to promoting industries and we need to remove all the obstacles and create a culture of trade facilitation. “Our country has tremendous potential as we have enormous talent. What we need is consistency in the government policies and a clear roadmap to move forward,” he added.
The veteran trade leader was of the view that all the sectors including the industrial sector should discharge their national obligations and play their key role in strengthening the economy while the government should introduce reforms and control the smuggling of raw material and finished goods.
Iftikhar Ali Malik urged the government to conduct market research to find out new foreign destinations for the Pakistani products which are best in the world as far as quality and price is concerned. He said that Pakistani missions abroad should be duty-bound to introduce Pakistani products to foreign buyers and also ensure dissemination of trade-related information so that Pakistan entrepreneurs could avail trade opportunities to the maximum.