LAHORE: SAARC chamber of commerce and Industry former President Iftikhar Ali Malik Sunday said that political stability is pre-requisite for sound economy which will promise greater weal for the people from different strata of the society.
Talking to a delegation of traders, he said that at present, Pakistan cannot endure political turmoil or instability, asserting that uninterrupted stable democracy is needed for sustained economic growth to cope with the multiple challenges in the country.
He said that politics of confrontation and violence is not the solution.
He said time has changed as now the influential nations are paying more attention to financial warfare to continue their dominance. These countries are successfully using their weapons of economic destruction to weaken economics of poor nations to achieve their unholy designs. “It is indeed important to increase our exports and for that purpose we need to reduce our cost of doing business so that our products remain competitive in the world market
s,” he added.
Malik said trade facilitation is the key to promoting industries and ‘we need to remove all the obstacles and create the culture of trade facilitation.’ He stressed the need for consistency in the government policies and a clear roadmap to move forward,’ he added.
He was of the view that all the sectors including the industrial sector should discharge their national obligations and play their key role in strengthening the economy while the government should introduce reforms and control the smuggling of raw material and finished goods.
Pakistani missions abroad should be duty bound to introduce Pakistani products to the foreign buyers and also ensure dissemination of trade related information so that Pakistan entrepreneurs could avail trade opportunities to the maximum.