Proposals sought from industry: Housing sector promotion
KARACHI, March 29: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday asked stakeholders involved in housing and construction to give their concrete recommendations within a week so that these could be presented to the prime minister and actions could be taken.
He was presiding over a meeting of all the stakeholders related to this sector here. The finance minister highlighted the importance of housing and construction in terms of promoting growth and job creation. As a result of the measures taken in last year's budget, the country is witnessing growth in construction activity, he explained.
The Cement Manufacturing Association informed the meeting that they were operating at 98 per cent capacity, up from 66 per cent last year. According to the association, the rise in the Public Sector Development Programme, low interest rate environment, availability of housing finance, and the general feel-good environment had been responsible for a sharp rise in construction activity.
The meeting discussed four major issues pertaining to the housing and construction sector. These issues included: land acquisition and legal matters; infrastructure; fiscal and taxation issues; and implementation issues.
All the stakeholders gave their views on each of these issues. The meeting also discussed the steel supply situation at length. The chairman of Pakistan Steel and representatives of the re-rollable sector highly appreciated the recent cabinet decision to reduce the prices of steel products.
They informed the meeting that prices of billet had declined from Rs53,000 per ton and stabilized at Rs38,000 to Rs42,000 per ton. Pakistan Steel is operating at 97 percent capacity, the chairman informed the meeting.
He also said that to augment supply of steel, Pakistan Steel was importing 100,000 tons of billet, which would be arriving very soon.
Various measures to further augment the supply of steel were discussed so that the prices could be reduced. The Pakistan Banks Association president also presented the bankers view on housing and construction.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz has sought help from the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) in combating the under-invoicing and addressing the issue of preferential trade agreements.
Addressing the OICCI members on Monday, the finance minister said the government would take further steps to attract more foreign direct investment into the country.
He called upon the chamber to help the government in checking the menace of under-invoicing. The chamber should also jointly address the issue of preferential trade agreements and enter into a dialogue with the government.
He gave an account of the country's economy during seven months of the current fiscal year. He said water availability and fertilizer offtake had improved considerably, as a result of which growth in the agricultural sector was as per target of 4.3 per cent per annum. Cotton, wheat, rice and sugarcane crops have all shown good gains.
"This will result in a Rs65-billion increase in income in the rural areas, primarily because of the increase in cotton support prices. Manufacturing sector has also grown at the rate of 15pc per annum. As a result of all this, the GDP is likely to grow between 5.5pc and 6pc."
Inflation has been contained to about four per cent. There has also been a manifold increase in credit availability to the private sector and market capitalization has also improved. Inward remittances are expected to be around $3.5 billion, the minister said.
"The flow of FDI into Pakistan has been around $600m. This has to be seen in the context of the general trend of FDI in the region, which has been low."-APP
