KARACHI Dec 11 (TNS): The Presidential Candidate of the Businessmen Panel (BMP) Senator Haji Ghulam Ali said if we are elected in FPCCI 2018 elections, our first priority will be to set up FPCCI regional office in Multan and Sukkur, so that business of community of South Punjab and Interior Sindh may start close liaison conveniently with the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce on important matters.
He said from the last three years business community of South Punjab and Interior Sindh was neglected badly and its need of the hour to put them in the main stream.
Ghulam Ali said we are determined to close coordination with the political parties of the country on the subject of economy so that long term policies may flourish accordingly, because we have to understand with our effective economy no country will on take off position to achieve the required targets.
He also told Pakistan’s trade deficit has been increasing for many years now. But this increase was also due to an increase in imports more than the increase in exports.
He said these situations are a reflection of serious economic challenges posed by cost of doing business and rupee devaluation. These chronic economic ills have always been attributed to failure of various governments. One should think whether the sitting management of The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), as a apex trade body, has played its due role to address the crisis and not just raise a hue and cry?
He believes the expected role and operational status of the FPCCI should be similar to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) or US Chamber of Commerce has in order to play a catalyst for accelerated economic growth to fill the gap in development stages between Pakistan and its neighboring countries.
Though FPCCI and UBG Group claimed to play an active role in presenting problems of trade, industry and environment and safeguarding the interests of the private sector but practically we didn’t see concrete measures.
He also said FPCCI and UBG have credited the situation as riding in balloon on trade deficit. The change of characteristics in formation of trade bodies had a major impact on FPCCI.
As a consequence the role of the Federation (apex trade body) minimized or vanished in policy formulation due to lack luster policies of their group leaders.
Similarly, the Spokesperson of Businessmen Panel, Ahmad Jawad said there are no regional desk/ department in FPCCI like South Asia, Central Asia, European Union and Middle East etc. All other national chambers have these departments headed by well experienced and qualified economists. However FPCCI has no properly WTO department and agriculture desk which is unfortunate.
He briefed being the apex trade body of the country; FPCCI should form a think tank for dialogue, policy advocacy and lobbying to safeguard the interest of business sector. This think tank should suggest sustainable development policies on behalf of the private sector.
Jawad added and said FPCCI must work on publications, knowledge papers and conduct studies on every important sector who have linked with the economy and accordingly they may furnished to the government for indulging in the policy documents, but in last three years none of these steps being implemented which is a point of concern for us.
