LAHORE – The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed the Federal Government decision to allow import of rice bran edible oil extraction machinery from India and termed it a step towards right direction that is bound to expedite business activities in the country.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, the LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik said that the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Federal Secretary Zafar Mehmood deserve appreciation in highest terms for taking a visionary step in the larger interests of Pakistani economy. He said that the decision would help save billions of dollars being spent on the import of palm oil. He said that the rice bran contains about 15-20 percent edible oil, which could efficiently be used for bridging the oil deficiency in the country. This will not only be helpful to fulfill the country’s edible oil requirement but also to cope with the protein deficiency in the communities at risk through bran supplemented value added products.
“The decision would not only help increase volume of investment in the country but definitely it would be bringing down the rate of unemployment as new investments would be creating large number of job opportunities.” The LCCI President said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and industry has since long been calling on the government to eliminate hurdles in the way smooth running of businesses so that the government could be able to generate much needed revenue and the single step of granting permission to import bran oil extraction machinery would be helping the government in many ways.