(May 03-2023)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the cost of doing business is kept under control in every country which is necessary for development.
In the countries where the cost of doing business is left unchecked become beggars, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the business community of the European Union and neighbouring countries take cheap loans and concessions from the government for production, export and technology sectors, while in our country due to the continuous increase in the cost of doing business, planning has become impossible for the businessmen.
The local business community is suffering from extremely high costs of electricity and gas, governance issues and other factors, leaving them unable to consider long-term business planning.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that business has become almost impossible therefore many entrepreneurs are taking refuge in the real-estate sector.
The industrialists of developed countries have the full capacity to compete with other countries in the global market, due to which the economy of their countries develops, while our business community is unable to compete in the global market.
Due to weakness in the system it has become increasingly difficult for our exports to boost exports and earn foreign exchange for the country, he said.
The business leader said that many businessmen know that Pakistan and the property sector cannot develop together but still our policymakers seem least interested.
Due to the investment in the property market by industrialists, acquiring a plot and building a house has become a dream for the middle class.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that in the current economic situation, the real-estate sector has become a haven for domestic industrialists and has become a very profitable business.
At present, the real estate sector is attracting most of the country’s capital and the production sector, which is a major source of employment and foreign exchange in the country, is becoming a loss-making business, unless this trend is changed, the country cannot develop and will always be in need of loans.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that how can a country progress when people working in foreign countries earn more foreign exchange than the industrialists and send 30 billion dollars to the country annually?
The price of the shares of a well-known business organization in a neighbouring country has decreased by 108 billion dollars in a few days, while the personal wealth of the head of the group has decreased by 48 billion dollars, but it has not made any difference, while Pakistan is knocking on every door to arrange a few billion dollars since months.
He said that the culture of Pakistan and India is not much different but there is a huge difference in policies which has made India a global economic power and Pakistan has become a beggar.
