Syed Mazhar Nasir, Senior Vice President Federation of Pakistan Chambers and Industry (FPCCI) lauded the maiden speech of Prime Minister Imran Khan calling his austerity measures as a revolutionary step to get out of the quagmire of crisis amounting to Rs28 trillion local including US$95 billion foreign debt and liabilities. Commenting on the speech he said that this was a very strong and important message which should be adhered to as we prepare ourselves to achieve the economic sovereignty.
He observed that trickledown affect of the measure would help lot in reducing a colossal unnecessary expenditures resulting in massive improvement in the financial health of the country as a whole.
He welcomed the proposal of creating a business advisory council to help address the problems and challenges being faced by the local exporters. This would indeed help in boosting our export and reducing the trade deficit which now stand at US$37 billion — a long-overdue demand of the exporters, he remarked,
Mazhar Nasir assured the prime minister that FPCCI would render any help and assistance required in this regard. The Business community would stand firmly by him in his efforts to overcome the dwindling economic situation of the country.
He appreciated the decision of the prime minister to establish an office in the prime minister’s secretariat, specially dedicated to looking into the problems of the investors and persuade expatriates in investing in their homeland to boost the economy. The FPCCI in collaboration with Board of Investment (BoI) is ready to cooperate with the proposed Secretariat in this regard, he added.
Nasir was of the view that the government’s initiative to remind our embassies of their prime task of facilitating the expatriate in every way they can, would go a long way to encourage overseas Pakistanis to invest in the country and help rebuild the economy. I’m sure with efforts from our foreign missions the expatriates will bring their money to Pakistan through Pakistani banks as we are short of foreign exchange, he added.
He said that the prime minster has rightly said that the SMEs are the backbone of many developing countries and there is a need to promote this sector and for that we need to reduce the cost and difficulties of doing business for them, he pointed out.
He appreciated the desire of the Prime Minster to improve the healthcare by reducing women and infant mortality rate besides stunted growth of children due to malnutrition. And education system by improving government schools, allocate government school building to private sector in evening and bring reforms in Madarassa system. This he would definitely be a great contribution to the much needed and long overdue undertaking in the field of human development in particular and nation building as a whole.
He termed the prime minister’s decision to reform the Federal Board of Revenue on a priority basis as timely because the FBR had lost its credibility and that was why people were not paying their taxes. His promise to protect taxpayers’ money and spend it on the welfare of the people would definitely restore the confidence of the taxpayers on FBR, he pointed out.
Moreover, his resolve to meet the NAB chairman and facilitate him with whatever he needs and enact a law for whistleblowers were significant moves in rooting out corruption from the country, Mazhar remarked.