ISLAMABAD: Speaking after taking over charge as President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said that business community is the backbone of economy and vowed to resolve their key issues on priority basis.
During a handing over/taking over ceremony held at Chamber House on Tuesday, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed taken over the charge as President, Tahir Abbasi as Senior Vice President and Sai fur Rahman Khan as Vice President of ICCI for the year 2019-20.
Speaking at the occasion, the President ICCI stressed that the government should take measures to provide an enabling environment for businesses that would help in steering the economy out of current challenges.
He urged that government should involve the business community in consultation process to overcome the hurdles that were impeding the growth of business
He urged that government should involve the business community in consultation process to overcome the hurdles that were impeding the growth of business activities and find out their consensus solutions.
Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said that promoting ease of doing business and investment was the key requirement to transform Pakistan into a strong economy and desired that government should formulate policies aimed at facilitation of entrepreneurs and investors.
He said his doors were open for the business community and also called upon the ICCI members to keep sending proposals for redress of problems and bringing further improvement in the working of Chamber for their facilitation.
Senior Vice President ICCI Tahir Abbasi and Vice President Saif ur Rahman Khan said that SME sector was the key pillar of Pakistan’s economy in terms of contribution to GDP, employment generation and export promotion, therefore, government should take measures to further strengthen the SMEs.
They said government should consider reducing key interest rate and focus on providing easy access to finance to SME sector along with easing the conditions of collaterals in order to help SMEs and startups to flourish and play more effective role in the economic development of the country.
INP/SB
