PESHAWAR  -  Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Fazal Moqeem Khan has urged the government and State Bank of Pakistan to ensure provision of soft loans for development of small-scale businesses and industries through commercial banks.

He said the commercial banks at various forums were consistently making invitations to businessmen to avail loan facilities, but when the business community approached the banks, they were informed that KP had been declared as ‘red-zone’ with regard to loan provision. Therefore, he urged the central bank to issue instructions to commercial banks to remove KP from ‘red-zone’. He also stressed the need of improving the lending ratio of commercial banks against their rising deposits.

Fazal Moqeem was talking to Chief Manager, State Bank of Pakistan Peshawar Waqar Ali during a meeting held here at the Chamber House on Friday. The meeting was attended by SCCI senior vice president Abdul Jalil Jan, Deputy Chief Manager, SBP Muhammad Haroon, and Assistant Chief Manager Imran Khan and others. The meeting was informed that SBP will hold an awareness session for the business community on November 19 in SBP building and on 27 November in the Chamber House. It was agreed to jointly take measures for provision of loans to traders on easy terms and promotion of SMEs under joint ventures and projects.

Chief Manager, SBP Waqar Ali along with other senior officials congratulated the newly elected cabinet of the SCCI. Moqeem called for one window facilitation services to the business community to halt the ‘flight of capital’ and ‘brain drains’ from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He also asked the government and SBP to play a role in the economic development of KP.

The SCCI chief, while emphasizing on uniform implementation of policies across the country, stated that traders, exporters and importers were faced with difficulties, which should be addressed on priority basis. He stressed the need for efficient utilization of natural resources to change the destiny of the K-P and also halt the rapid flight of capital and brain drain from the province.

Earlier, the meeting decided to hold a joint meeting of SCCI, SBP and officials of relevant departments and authorities to sort out a viable solution to business community issues.