LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged all the political parties to show maturity and resolve issues through talks as politics of agitation and sit-ins are pushing the national economy to the wall.

“Political stability is a must for economic development,” said LCCI President Ijaz A Mumtaz, Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir and Vice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi in a joint statement on Saturday.

Political debate and economic policy considerations required convergence at this critical juncture of country’s history, they said while urging all the political parties to shun their differences and join hands with the private sector for preparation and implementation of a national agenda for much-needed industrial and economic revolution.

“This is a prerequisite to help reduce dependence on International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and for paving way for self-reliance in coming years. Pakistan, at present, is in dire need of stability in policy making and strong institutions and to achieve the very objective, both the politicians and the business leaders would have to join their heads for finding out a common economic agenda,” the statement said.

In order to compete with the great nations of the world, the LCCI office-bearers said, the country required a growth rate of eight per cent for more than five years.

The LCCI office-bearers said all the political forces should, without any further delay, initiate consultations with the economic leadership, including the chambers of commerce and industry, to chalk out an elaborate plan of action, aimed at reducing dependence on external assistance and achieving the long-cherished economic goals.

They said availability of cheaper equity was a prerequisite to help expedite the process of industrialisation in the country that in turn would also bring down the graph of unemployment.

“Unemployment is mother of a number of social ills being witnessed by the country today and the private sector has the solution provided it is facilitated through a proper methodology,” said the LCCI office-bearers while stressing the need for an early consensus in all the provinces for early initiation of work on mega water reservoirs, including Kalabagh Dam to overcome electricity shortage and the power tariff issue.

They said huge coal reserves and the existing potential to produce electricity through solar means also needed a workable and time-bound strategy after due consultation of public and private sectors.

They said the country’s export base could be widened by encouraging especially the local investors and then the foreign investors who had lost their trust in the existing policy framework.

“The local investors have the ability to convince the foreign investors for investment in various sectors. Only because of political uncertainty, the country has become one of the most economically and socially challenged nations. If the political forces in the country failed to respond to the wake-up call of the private sector with true intentions, external uncontrollable factors some day would roll over us.”

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014