Malik mentioned that Punjab was the most industrialized province; it produced textiles, sports goods, heavy machinery, electrical appliances, surgical instruments, cement, vehicles, auto parts, IT, metals, sugar mill plants, cement plants, agriculture machinery, bicycles and rickshaws, floor coverings, and processed foods. The province has more than 68,000 industrial units which included 39,033 small and cottage industrial units, 14,820 textile units, 6,778 ginning industries, and 7,355 units for processing of agricultural raw materials including food and feed industries, he added.
To a question, he answered "Today, the energy situation in Punjab is not as bad as we used to face in yester years and we are quite optimistic that in coming years power outages will be plugged for good as work on many new power generation projects is well underway." LCCI President also expressed his satisfaction over the governance level in the province when compared with other provinces, as an effective monitoring mechanism had been put in place by the Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif.
He, however, added that prudent economic policy decisions were always essential to any sustainable solution to the challenges being faced by the country. Talking about the issues being faced by the trade and industry, he said that taxation issues were impacting the competitiveness of Pakistani merchandise both in local and foreign markets.
Lahore Chamber President urged on elimination of withholding tax on banking transaction, regulatory duty on 43 items, and also urged the government to withdraw sections 38 and 40-B, misuse of discretionary powers by the FBR staff and bank account attachment as these hurdles were not only keeping new taxpayers from the tax net but also discouraging the existing taxpayers. He also stressed the need for exploring new markets to jack-up export volume. Due focus should also be given to non-traditional items for which Pakistan has sufficient expertise and potential. Potential markets included China, Turkey, Central Asian States and African countries, and the fact that these locations were invariably in the developing world means that these markets would show healthy growth when developed markets began contraction which may prove to be major opportunity in the future.
Malik Tahir Javaid was of the view that if Pakistani businessmen could cope with the influx of Chinese products so there was nothing to worry about India but definitely we need to put our house in order. "We must be very strong internally otherwise our weaknesses would render us vulnerable and expose us to threats. Poor law and order situation not only hurts local investments but also keeps the foreign investors at bay.
About sit-ins and protests by opposition political parties, Malik said that Pakistan's economy could not afford activities that could hurt businesses, trade and industrial growth. He cited political stability as a requisite for economic growth; economic development was not possible without political stability and conducive business environment.
He urged the leadership of all the protesting political parties to join hands for strengthening the economy instead of creating chaos through protests and sit-ins. LCCI President said that anti-Pakistan elements were hatching conspiracies against China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and it was need of the hour that political and business leadership should come together in beefing up the defenses of the county and serve as a formidable line of defense.
He was of the view that Pakistan, at this point in time, was in dire need of stability in policy making and strong institutions to achieve the very objective, both the political and the business leaders would have to sit together and devise Pakistan's long term economic agenda. Responding to another query, Malik Tahir Javaid said that exchange of business delegations among countries, sharing of valuable information related to trade, business and investment and ease of visa processing were the plan of action for boosting Pakistan's trade relations with other countries.
He also called for product diversification saying that most of the trade between the two countries was confined to a few sectors; therefore, other sectors should also be focused for enhancing trade.