Govt vows to revive sick industrial unit

All efforts would be made to revive the sick industrial units, announced State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Executive Director Syed Irfan Ali, while speaking in a Zoom meeting with owners of the sick units at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI).

Ali said the government and all financial institutions were keen to help revive the economy in addition to creating maximum job opportunities for the population hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Talking about possible solutions, he stated “there are two possible solutions. One is to arrange individual meetings between owners of sick units with the creditor bank concerned. Secondly, the issue could be taken up collectively in the case of Faisalabad.”

The SBP executive director asked FCCI President Rana Sikandar Azam Khan to provide details of sick units so that proper action could be initiated immediately.

Speaking on the occasion, SBP Director of Banking Policy and Regulation Javaid Akhtar said 10 banks had constituted the Corporate Restructuring Company (CRC) with the mandate of reviving sick units.

He offered a meeting between him and businessmen so that issues could be resolved amicably, adding that a meeting with the CRC chief executive officer would be held on July 23.

The FCCI president said most of the sick units were victims of unfavourable and harsh circumstances and added “we should not treat them like willful defaulters.”

Khan pointed out that these units had played a key role in national exports in addition to providing much-needed jobs to the unemployed youth. However, global meltdown, unavailability of energy, uncompetitive gas and electricity tariffs and historically high interest rate were the root causes of the closure.

He stressed that he had pleaded their case in the previous Zoom meeting with the central bank governor and he had assured that he would chair a special meeting on the issue on Monday.

He asked the owners of sick units to identify the issues related to other departments, so that these problems could also be resolved simultaneously.

FCCI Standing Committee Chairman Mian Muhammad Latif remarked that these issues had already been highlighted and efforts were being made to address the challenges at the highest level.

He pointed out that Prime Minister Imran Khan had also given directives in that regard as the revival of sick units would help to enhance national exports in addition to creating new job opportunities for the workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2020.

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