HYDERABAD, April 30: Speakers at a pre-budget seminar have called for creating investment-friendly atmosphere and improving infrastructure to accelerate industrialization in the province. The moot titled “Performance, Challenges, Opportunities and Strategies”, was organized by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP), Karachi Council at the Auditorium of Kotri Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) here on Saturday.
Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Excise and Taxation M.A. Jalil, ICMAP’s National Council Member Prof Dr Khawaja Amjad Saeed, former vice-president of Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI) M.A. Jabbar, KATI Chairman Tauqir Tariq, Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) President Emad Siddiqui, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) President Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, HCCI former president Masood Pervez and KATI’s senior vice-chairman Tariq Baloch spoke at the moot.
M.A. Jalil said that the government was taking all measures to improve business environment in the interior of Sindh. He said that the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) registered a 52 per cent increase to $515 million during the last seven months of the current fiscal against $339.5 million the same period of last year.
He said that the government was anticipating overall inflation to rise to double digits by end of June this year due to continuous increase in prices of petroleum and essential consumer goods. He said inflation had already increased to 8.8 per cent in the first seven months of this fiscal against the full year budgetary target of 4.3 per cent.
Prof Khawaja Amjad Saeed said that the GDP growth rate in the country would be around 7-8 per cent and the government should prepare investment-friendly policies for improving it.
He called for giving top priority to education and health. He asked the government to take measures to cut the cost of production which would make our products more competitive on the world markets.
M.A. Jabbar dwelt at length on conference’s theme to say that multilateral donors had some genuine worries about the economic stability in Pakistan because these lenders had liability of $35 billion and added that budget 2005-06 should reflect all these challenges. “The industrial infrastructure needs to be brought at par with requirements of 21st century and we need affordable power supplies for industries to attract investment.”
Touching on subjects ranging from accountability, police reforms, water reservoirs, he said that the government needed to have decentralized affairs. He said that the provinces should be asked to generate electricity on their own. “When Pakistan being lower riparian takes up case of Baghliar Dam why not same approach is adopted in domestic issues of water projects where lower riparian have reservations”, he said and called for reforms in police and civil services to make them efficient.
He called upon National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to protect consumers’ interests as they had no safeguards, forcing people to steal gas and electricity. He said that policies should be introduced for attracting more investment in the private sector. He spoke of poor transport facilities and road infrastructure and quoted a report of National Productivity Organization, indicating loss of Rs320 billion due to weak roads and infrastructure.
