Federal Minister Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Thursday that as per Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, the government has taken concrete steps for industrial revolution in the country.
Talking to a delegation of Entrepreneurs Organization which called on him here, the minister said that the government was providing all possible facilities to investors through favourable and investment friendly policies. He said that during the tenure of the previous government, deindustrialization was done in the country and the PTI after coming to power took concrete measures to stop this process.
Fawad said that Pakistan was a safe country where local and foreign investors and businesses enjoyed protection. He said that the government believed that the country would make progress if the industrial sector would develop as the business sector had a big role in the country’s economic development.
Fawad opined that the industrial and business sector not only provided employment opportunities at large scale but also contributed to the increase of the country’s GDP. He said that due to the government’s steps investment in Pakistan’s stock exchange has increased considerably.
The minister said that companies operational in Pakistan were earning record profit and a 37 per cent increase was registered in the people’s income. He said that Rs 1100 billion have been added in the rural economy and the farmers had become prosperous.
Due to industrial and agricultural progress in the country, he said the sale of cars and motorcycles has shown an upward trend. He said that the government was aware of the problems of the salaried class and it was taking measures to address their problems. He urged the profit-earning companies to increase salaries of their workers.
The delegation appreciated the government’s steps for the development of industries and business sector in the country.
Meanwhile, Fawad Chaudhry highlighted important role of women in national development, underlining the need for their more active participation in economic growth to reduce poverty in the country. Addressing to the launching ceremony of FINCA Microfinance Bank’s first branch staffed entirely by women, he urged females to create their own businesses and companies as there was no issue of their financial inclusion in Pakistan.
The public and private sectors had created multiple opportunities to boost the women and entrepreneurs access to the finances, he said, mentioning a recent programme launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan recently under the Ehsaas umbrella to offer loans amounting to Rs 0.5 million for every house hold of low income group. About the newly inaugurated branch of the FINCA Microfinance Bank, he said this was a golden opportunity for women especially for those who had skills and graduated from the universities lately.
“So create your own businesses, which would eventually help create jobs in the country,” he said while urging the women for actively participating in the national development. The minister said the inflation could only be controlled by increasing income generation in the country. “If 50 per cent population does not work then how will the country move forward,” he questioned and said: “Unless we let the women to enter in our economic life on equal basis, this country will remain poor.”
He said the mega relief package announced by the prime minister on Wednesday was aimed at providing 30 per cent subsides on wheat flour, pulses and ghee to those whose monthly income was less than Rs 31,000.
Fawad reiterated that the only solution to inflation was increase in income generation. The oil and gas prices in the global market could not decline due to low income generation in Pakistan, he added. He said the people in rural areas were not hit by the inflation as of those who were living in urban areas as there has been an increase in farmers’ income which was amounted to Rs 1,100 billion.
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