FCCI chief suggests measures to meet energy, other challenges

FAISALABAD: Top bureaucracy should make appropriate policies to cope with energy, food and water scarcity challenges and to make Pakistan economically strong.
It was said by Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Engineer Rizwan Ashraf while addressing the participants of 17th Senior Management Course of National Institute of Management, Islamabad, here on Tuesday.
The FCCI president said that Pakistan could provide easy access to the seaport to 1/4th population of the world living in this part of the region due to geographically presence in the heart of the Asia. He said that we must carve out comprehensive policies to fully harvest the benefits of this unique location by making it most viable and profitable transit country of the region.
He said that local industry had to face a tough competition not only due to other regional countries but also with the exporters from Karachi who were getting gas and electricity in abundance only due to the 18th amendment. He said that cheap and sufficient electricity was imperative for revival of textile sector and in this connection we must formulate national policy with the consensus of all provinces. The FCCI president said that in prevailing situation the local units of Faisalabad were struggling hard for their survival and 35 famous and big units had become sick while many others were operating with only 30-40 per cent of their installed capacity. The textile industry would extinct if immediate steps were not taken to save it from total collapse, he warned. He said that he was trying to organise a seminar to solve the problems confronted by textile sector on June 15, 2015. He said that the government had not yet given clear-cut policies, which were major bottleneck in overcoming this protracted issue of energy crisis. He said that Faisalabad and other big cities had a capacity of 80-100MW of electricity to be generated through waste.
He said that Pakistan had also potential to produce cheap hydel electricity, which was the most comprehensive solution to our problems including energy, food and water. He informed that India had nine international level research institutions for textile industry but we had no such institution in Pakistan. He said that the government must set-up such institution to give a futuristic vision to our textile. FCCI SVP Nadeem Allah Wala, VP Inam Afzal and others also attended the event.