‘Foreign policy hampers economic development’
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Senator Haji Ghulam Ali has termed the foreign policy, law and order situation and lack of interest in the business sector by the government major deadlocks in economic development of the country.
Talking to journalists in “Meet the Press” at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, Ali said, “If we look to our neighbouring countries, we have not even started what they have already achieved. If we want to make Pakistan the economic tiger of Asia, we will have to bring an industrial revolution.”
He said, “We must devote 50 per cent of our time to economic progress instead of other issues. Due to the government’s incorrect policies and lack of interest in the business sector, the economic conditions are weaker than those 15 years ago.”
Ali asserted that investors would not invest in a country where the law and order situation was deteriorating and sales tax was 17 per cent, and called for interest rates to be brought down to below 10 per cent.
The senator said that people did not want to depend on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and urged the government to cut the tax rate and widen the tax net to ensure that more people pay taxes.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2011.
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