ISLAMABAD   -  The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has called upon the government to formulate a new industrial policy that should focus on promoting knowledge-based economy in order to put Pakistan on the path of fast track economic growth.

Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said that the economy of Pakistan was facing many challenges and new industrial policy should be helpful in exploiting the full potential of agricultural, industrial and services sectors that would help in creating more jobs and absorbing knowledge-based workers.

He said the new industrial policy should be structured in a way that it should spread its benefits across all federating units and various income groups. He stressed that government should engage all stakeholders in consultation to formulate a consensus industrial policy

ICCI President said that Pakistan has made great strides in defense industry due to which our achievements in this field were well established and emphasized that new industrial policy should also contribute towards further strengthening our defense industry to promote its exports.

He said that high production cost in Pakistan due to multiple factors was a major hurdle in promoting industrialization and urged that new industrial policy should focus on reducing cost of doing business and promoting exports.

Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI said that Pakistan could make significant increase in exports by selling value added products and stressed that new industry policy should give specific focus to development of value-added products.

They said strong linkages were needed between services and manufacturing sectors to transform our economy from an agricultural to services-led, high-manufacturing and knowledge-based economy and emphasized that new industrial policy should take care of these issues.

They said that Pakistan has a vast pool of talented youth that is proficient in the fields of communication, information and internet technologies and thrust of new industrial policy should be on promoting high-quality research and innovation to tap the real potential of ICT technologies.

They said the world was embracing applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for accelerating economic growth and new industrial should help in educating existing and future industrial workforce in AI.

They further emphasized that new industrial policy should facilitate modernizing production process to produce internationally competitive brands of finished consumer and industrial goods that would make Pakistan hub of industrialization and exports and put it on the path of sustainable economic growth.