LAHORE - The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Friday urged the leadership of all political parties should join hands for strengthening the economy.

In a statement, LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said that due to political unrest trade and economic activities are sinking and the country was facing a huge economic loss.

He said that a week of stalled economic activity costs the country $ 500 million or $2 billion per month and a weak economy like Pakistan cannot afford to lose even one million dollar loss to exports. The LCCI president said that political unrest is also hindering economic growth.  Giving the recipe for economic independence, the LCCI president said there are a number of issues that must be tackled on priority.

He said that that we have to focus on agriculture, manufacturing sector, education, water, human resources, minerals, public health, tax collection system.

He said end of corruption should be focused to get rid of economic worries.

Malik Tahir said that the agriculture is the largest sector of Pakistan as around 43 percent labour was dependent upon the agriculture.  He said that this largest sector needs revolutionary reforms on war footing. He said that growth of agriculture sector would not only ensure food security and provision of raw material to the larges export-oriented industry textile but would also generate huge revenue for the government and vast employment opportunities.

The LCCI president said that country's population is growing at the rate of around 2.10 percent every year and if this growth continues for next two decades, population would cross the mark of 240 million.

He said that Pakistan needs to increase the yield per acre on steady pace therefore government should plan to bring that about 9 million hectors of fertile land under cultivation which is remained useless just because of shortage of water.

Malik Tahir said that shortage of water is one of the biggest challenges being faced by the country. He said that million acres land could be brought under cultivation by constructing the Kalabagh Dam therefore the dam should be built at any cost.

He said that Pakistan has mineral resources worth trillion dollars that can make the dream of economic stability true. These resources should be fully utilized for economic uplift of the country and local companies should be given priority for mining.

The LCCI president also stressed the need for developing regional, product specific and target oriented marketing strategy. New markets and new products need to be explored to reduce country's dependence on few commodities and countries. Pakistan's exports are highly concentrated in few items. Such concentration in few markets can also become a source for instability in export earnings.