The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed deep concern over the government’s least interest in solving the issue of prolonged load shedding damaging the domestic, commercial and industrial users alike and urged to take solid and serious measures for resolving this crisis causing severe dent to the national economy.
Speaking at a function here, the LCCI Chief Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the present government and its officers never get tired of talking about private sector’s being the engine of growth and increasing revenue targets ambitiously every year. Nevertheless, the government continued to fail in its tenure to provide an enabling environment to the private sector which could help it generate more revenues for the government, earn profitability and create job opportunities for the youth of the country.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that LCCI has repeatedly warned the government of massive lay-offs and industrial closures if it fails to immediately stop power outages but people sitting on the helm of the affairs are playing the role of silent spectators.
The LCCI President said that government would not be able to control the situation triggered by the demonstrations and strikes called by the angry industrial workers against their retrenchments as a result of these power outages.
“How the government would establish its writ and from where it would collect revenues to run its day-to-day affairs when the industrial wheel is coming to a grinding halt.” The LCCI President said that the government should understand that economic well being is a must for democracy. Unemployment, price-hikes, industrial closures always gives birth to lawlessness and anarchy. Therefore, the government should understand the ground realities and reset its priorities regarding provision of electricity to the industry.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the industry needs continuous supply of electricity to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity the exports are not up to the mark. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that Pakistan had already lost a number of global markets and the new power cuts would further aggravate the situation.
The LCCI President said that cheaper and uninterrupted power supply is only way to achieve economic targets set for the year 2012-13 but neither is the government sharing its future plans in this regard nor is it paying any heed to the difficulties being faced by the trade and industry. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that it is astonishing that on the one hand the government circles were talking of economic stability in 2012 while on the other hand they were not sharing any kind of roadmap to achieve this goal.
The LCCI President also feared a surge in street crimes, saying that law and order situation is bound to be aggravated in the coming days as repeated power outages in the industrial estates is jacking up the graph of unemployment, hitting the daily wage earners particularly hard. He said that most of the industrial units had already reduced their working to single six-hour shift from the previous three shifts system. This had led to increased level of raw-material wastage leaving production process non-profitable. Now the leading industrial units were experiencing losses despite being managed professionally.
The crisis in industrial sector is not only causing flight of capital and relocation of industrial units to the countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia but has also reduced government revenues drastically.
He said that a similar situation had erupted about two years ago but that was resolved with the help of the business community who lent a lot of input in developing a viable load management plan. The LCCI President urged the President and Prime Minister to take notice of this grave situation and act promptly to save industrial and social fabric of the country.
LCCI hosts a roundtable: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Indian National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) is arranging a Roundtable on “Skills for Employability in South Asia” on Tuesday (today) at its premises.
The Round table will explore the current status of skills and identify the emerging demand for skills in South Asia, focusing on Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh and Associate Professor NUEPA Dr Aarti Srivastava, LCCI Vice President Saeeda Nazar and FICCI officials will give their respective point of view. Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development of any country. Countries with higher and better levels of skills adjust more effectively to the challenges and opportunities of the world of work. Skill development has immense implication for labor market in general and inclusive growth in particular.
The skill that students need in order to best position them for employment opportunities in the 21st century economy will be identified. The discussion will also bring the stakeholders together for enhanced understanding of the procedures and processes of the system so that they can be addressed accordingly.
HR Managers from companies operating in diverse field such as IT, Banking, Insurance, Construction and Real Estate are likely to participate in the Roundtable and give their suggestions on how to bridge the gap between education and labor market.
