KARACHI, Dec 10: Ameen Bandukda was elected as the new Chairman of SITE Association of Industry for 2005-06 on Saturday. He is also the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of El Salvador, Central America.

Saboor Ahmed and Ahsan Arshad Ayub were elected as senior vice chairman and vice chairman, respectively, says a press release.

The newly-elected chairman on his induction said that he would try hard to rid the SITE area of problems like deteriorating infrastructure and dilapidated road network.

He said that the association will fight for issues like stuck up refunds of Sales Tax prior to Zero rating, work on starting the much delayed Industry House, help laying the foundation of an institute of human resource and Skill development and resolve the issue of property tax with the local government, “as we are lessees of Site Ltd and are paying rent.

Ameen said that country’s GDP was growing by over eight per cent per annum and the share of manufacturing was still at a dismal low of 17 per cent of the GDP. This has not improved in the last ten years, while other countries in our region, like India, are above 25 per cent.

He said Pakistan’s exports, albeit, had grown by 20 per cent this year but our share in the world’s exports was still a meagre 0.18 per cent, same as it was in 1990. Imports of the country are growing even faster, thus, creating a huge current account deficit.

Besides, he said that the cost of doing business was going up and there was a need for structural reforms to reduce the cost of business and make the Industry competitive.