LAHORE – The former Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has said that fairs and exhibitions are pivotal to identify the untapped potential of key sectors and to introduce Pakistani merchandise in the world market.
The senator was speaking at the LCCI Investment Conference at Expo Centre. LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik, Senior Vice President Sheikh Mohammad Arshad, Vice President Sohail Azhar, SAARC Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik, former WAPDA Chairman Tariq Hameed, Honrary Consul General of Australia Salim Ghauri, Engineer Faiz Muhammad Bhutta of Izhar Group, Usman Sakrani of Makro, Qazaffi Mahmood of Agrow, former All Pakistan Contactors Association Chairman Akbar Sheikh and PBIT DG Sajid Yoosufani were among experts, who presented their papers on investment opportunities.
Hassan Amjad and Awais Piracha also spoke on the occasion and threw light on the conference objectives. The former Finance Minister said that the country has no dearth of resources. However, these available resources need properly utilisation. He stated that the Lahore Shopping Festival would provide considerable boost to economic activities in the country.
He said that LCCI has rightly focused on key sectors like agriculture, construction, power and information technology. He, however, urged the business community to adopt modern business practices, which are the key to an economic turnaround. The LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik, while giving his presentation “Unlocking Growth and Investment Potential in Agriculture”, stressed the need for promotion of private investment in agro food sector to tackle the growing food insecurity.
He said that, despite impressive rankings in agro food sector; Pakistan has serious undernourishment as agricultural growth has failed to keep up with the needs of the population. The LCCI president said that hybrid technology has changed the face of the world grain production. The Honrary Consul of Australia Salim Ghauri, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of NetSol Technologies, spoke on IT potential and said that Pakistan’s IT industry took twenty five years to earn world acknowledgement.
However, it encouraging for the country that, at this point in time, when most of the world is importing IT technology from China, Pakistan is exporting technology to China. Salim Ghuari said that employment and investment opportunities exist in this single sector as it is cost friendly and easy setup. He said that a little attention, by the government, could help IT-companies position themselves globally.
Former All Pakistan Contactors Association Chairman Akbar Sheikh said that the construction sector has marvelous investment potential as the country needs 0.5 million units annually, while only 0.3 million are being built. He said that Lahore, alone, needs to build 50,000 new houses every year. He recommended that the government should promote Public Private Partnership (PPP) and REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), as a mode of private sector investment to cope with the fast increasing backlog of housing units.
He said that the government should also encourage higher density, by encouraging multi-storey construction. He also called on the government to expedite approval of construction projects, besides encouraging representation of private sector in regulatory/approval process.
