Lahore, March 27, 2018 (PPI-OT): Lord Mayor Lahore Col ® Mubashir Javed has said that business community has the ability to turn Pakistan in to an economic giant. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid, Vice President Zeeshan Khalil and EC members also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the challenges being faced by the business community.
Lord Mayor said that the world is in a state of “economic war” since long and all economies are working hard to win the race. He said that various countries, which were economically deprived in 70s, have done reasonable progress. He said that government has started work to clean temporary encroachments in order to make the flow of traffic smooth. He said that Budget has been allocated for roads construction in Lahore which will be started within 3 to 4 months.
The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said that in today’s fast changing world, cites compete with each other for attracting business. A most striking feature of the Census 2017 is that around 66 percent of the population of Pakistan now lives in ten cities. He said they are the level at which the ease of doing business is judged. This makes the measurement of the size of the economy of cities and the understanding of its structure extremely important.
He said Lahore was the second largest city of Pakistan in Census 1998. It retains that position in Census 2017. What is new is that it is the only city of Pakistan whose population has more than doubled in the intercensal period, from 5,143,495 to 11,126,285.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that the most important result of the study is that Lahore has a large economy of over a trillion rupees. In 2010-11, the size of the economy of Lahore was around Rs 945.6 billion. It went up to Rs 1,227 billion in 2014-15. This means that the share of Lahore in the Punjab economy increased from 17.7 per cent in 2010-11 to 18.9 per cent in 2014-15. The corresponding shares of Lahore in Pakistan’s GDP were 10.4 per cent and 11.5 percent.
The LCCI president said that with economies of scale and agglomeration, a high growth of Lahore will contribute to high growth of Punjab and a high growth of Punjab will lead to a high growth of Pakistan. With an urban population growth of 4.02 per cent, the Lahore district is now 99 per cent urban.
He said servicing this large population has changed the structure of the economy as well. The predominant sector of the economy of Lahore is now the services sector. He said we need to understand the policy implications of the rising share and growth of services. The city will have to effectively manage environment, infrastructure, investment, consumption and other services to remain competitive.
Malik Tahir Javaid said building new parking plazas near or around important markets in Lahore has been in the agenda of the Punjab Government. He said we request you to kindly expedite the procedure so that the problem of parking could be solved. Moreover, the private sector should be allowed to be partner in it. Rotary parking plazas can also be encouraged to address this problem.
He said that the city drainage system needs to be overhauled if not completely, than at least in parts. Priority should be given to the sections, which are completely broken down. Such areas need serious consideration. Side by side with the issue of drainage system up gradation is the availability of drinkable water. If that issue is under the purview and consideration of the city government; we would be interested to know your plans.
The LCCI President said that there is a lot of confusion among the general public and the business community about the origin and number of taxes. Tax collection is sometimes sublet to contractors without proper intimation to the private sector about the tax head. That opens the door for exploitation and graft. City District Government should clarify the fiscal measures for time to time to avoid confusion.
He said that Lahore as a major city continues to face the unmanageable traffic pressures. Nowadays, the construction work for metro train is going on at a much larger scale. The construction company should be instructed to keep the relevant roads as much clear of undue hurdles as possible so that the flow of the traffic should not get disturbed.
“We really value the efforts of law enforcing departments/agencies in maintaining law and order in Lahore but yet there is still a lot to do to slash crime rate especially in industrial areas”, the LCCI President added. He said that encroachments are a serious problem in the markets despite good efforts in the past by the government but this problem still prevails and needs to be rooted out. Sohail Lashari, Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry, Shahid Nazir, Shahbaz Aslam, Dr. Shahid Raza, Mian Muhammad Nawaz, Naeem Hanif, Adnan Khalid Butt and others were present on the occasion.
For more information, contact:
Information Department
Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)
11-Shahrah-e-Aiwan-e-Tijarat,
Lahore -54000, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-111-222-499
Fax: +92-42-36368854
Website: www.lcci.org.pk