A High Profile meeting between The Prime Minister and ABC member’s delegation was held in the Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad on 31st August 2020.
The delegation, led by ABC President Mr. Adnan Asad, briefed the Prime Minister on business activities and related issues of their respective companies. The delegation said that the business-friendly policies of the government had encouraged the American companies and they wanted to further expand their investment in Pakistan.
The ABC delegation put forward a 14 point Agenda to facilitate the Business Community:
- Urdu labeling issues related to import of food products in bulk for the food service industry hotels / clubs / restaurants / cafes and international chain accounts.
- implement standard pure food laws nationwide. Ensure Punjab Food Authority does not abuse the power for extortion.
- Transshipment of goods through Pakistan ports. We need to capitalize on this opportunity. This involves billions of rupees in revenue.
- Treating expat. Pakistanis with respect and equal opportunity to invest in business in Pakistan.
- To develop exports of consumer durables through e-commerce, by reaching out / marketing via email. List required from Nadra. There is no data available at the embassy to market Pakistan origin products.
- Involve ABC members to support the Ministry of Tourism to privatize resorts and to draw USA based investors.
- Allow the pharma industry to increase prices as per agreed policy & encourage further investments.
- Allow clearance of raw material from India stuck up at the ports for over 12 weeks. New products registration pending for over 18 months.
- Pakistan has a potential to export mobile phones worth 10 billion properly implementing mobile device manufacturing policy to encourage companies like Samsung and others to put up plants in Pakistan.
- Food service industry is the largest employer in Pakistan. Encouraging setting up of packaging industry by offering concessions for bulk imports.
- Appoint Consul General from the private sector for a 3-year term to develop exports & tourism. This appointment should be renewable subject to performance.
- Significant issue of illicit cigarette trade in Pakistan causing a loss of PKR 50 billion each year in lost taxes.
- Conserve foreign exchange outflow of over Rs. billion by developing capacity of local insurance industry.
- To establish an independent Pakistan image building board to promote investments, tourism & exports.
The prime minister directed his advisors on commerce and finance to consider the proposals presented by the delegation so that implementation of feasible suggestions could be ensured. The delegation appreciated the government for facilitating the business community with different initiatives, especially the steps taken under ease of doing business. On directions of the prime minister, the government departments were immediately activated and the follow ups by all departments were visible.