First ever Industrial Policy to be announced by year end

13 Jul '09

3 min read

Present government has the honor to formulate first ever Industrial Policy, after a long time, to promote industrial sectors of the economy which will be announced in a couple of months.

Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Federal Minister for Industries & Production said this while addressing the business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

He said government was working on first ever comprehensive Industrial Policy for giving boost to this important sector of the economy in consultation with all stakeholders and accommodating their views and suggestions in the new policy. He asked the businessmen to give their proposals to make this policy more industry friendly.

On this occasion, he announced that a Marble City will be set up in Islamabad in collaboration with Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC), which will give a boost to local marble industry.

He said government was giving priority attention to the promotion of SME sector which was considered engine of growth and a key source for job creation. He said SMEDA would be made more active to accelerate the pace of development of SMEs in the country.

Dilating upon energy crisis, Manzoor Wattoo said government was working on different options for meeting the energy requirements of the country including wind, coal & gas etc. He said country was facing a shortfall of 3000 MW while due to fault at Mangla power station; this shortage had gone up to 4100 MW. However, he assured that by end of July, industry will face no loadshedding while country will get rid of this problem by December this year.

Speaking on the occasion, Mian Shaukat Masud, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) highlighted business community issues. He said industry was in deep troubles due to multiple factors including power shortage, law & order situation, high interest rates and high production cost etc.

He said Ministry of Industries & Production had a key role to play in creating an enabling environment for industrial growth. He said Pakistan, with a consumer market of 170 million people, abundance of raw materials, cheap labor and entrepreneurship, was endowed with all the requisites to climb the ladder of industrialization and all it needed was a conducive Industrial Policy to become a growing industrial country.

He said large-scale manufacturing and textile sectors needed special packages for bringing them out of negative growth and government should work out such packages in consultation with business community to put industry on the path of growth. He said Islamabad was badly needed a new Industrial Estate as the existing Industrial Estates had saturated and sought the Minister's help for accelerating the establishment of I-17 Sector Industrial Estate.

He said despite earning good profits, banks were providing no soft terms loans to industrial sector and government should come forward to ensure easy loaning facilities and tax relief measures for struggling industries.

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry

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