Product diversification is the key to success: LCCI

LAHORE, October 09 (Online): President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Mian Tariq Misbah has said in post-COVID era, product diversification is a key to economic success.

He said exports are the lifeline of countries’ economy and many sectors including leather, carpets, rice and halal meat etc needed to be facilitated and motivated to increase their share in the global export market.

He said importers should not be forgotten as they are also fulfilling the demands of the country.

He said this while giving his policy statement on the LCCI FM 98.6 here on Friday.

Speaking about the importance of ease of doing businesses, he said, trivial works, which should be done in no time, take more time of the businessmen, in order to achieve the ease in doing businesses, we have decided to bring everyone here, the remaining government departments, offices, so that the average time a businessmen spends on these petty doable works should be reduced.

He said the fundamental changes the industrialists demand in structure, policy making, tax system and in business environment have to be systematically rationalized, adding we need to be consulted during the process of brainstorming for the formulation of policies as we are the major stakeholders and directly impacted both positively and negatively due to these policies.

Mian Tariq Misbah stressed on the need to change the approach the government has for the businessmen, “we cannot run after the government all the time, it is important that they (government) should talk to us in matters related to the economy which will increase the ease of doing business and encourage the entrepreneurship” said President LCCI.

Speaking about the traffic issues, encroachments and parking, he said, these facilities should have been provided long ago, he regretted and said “now there are no space for parking plazas in the markets, the land is costly and hard to find, we have identified few places and have also forwarded request to at least start from there and we are in continuous liaison with the local authorities for the permanent solution to the issue.

Mian Tariq Misbah again emphasized on the use of masks and sanitizers and said, “SOPs must be followed, we cannot afford another day of inactivity and shutdown, developed states have incurred huge losses due to the virus and they had the capacity to overcome the deteriorating economic situation but we cannot” he cautioned.

Speaking about the most speculated issue the Tax and the tax system, he said ease of doing business must be ensured, the government must expand the tax net, “we know this is not easy, an extra effort is required to expand the tax net and while doing that the government must not bulldoze the existent taxpayers, he emphasized.