Islamabad - The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad have agreed to set up a Metropolitan Commerce Unit.

Sheikh Anser Aziz, Mayor Islamabad visited the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and discussed the possibilities of setting up the Metropolitan Commerce Unit (MCU) that would help planning for better economic development in the city. Sheikh Amir Waheed President, Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President, Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI and representative of Police Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME) were present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Anser Aziz said that developed countries achieved better economic growth by developing strong local governments and Pakistan should also focus on strengthening the local governments to resolve problems of people and achieve sustainable growth. He lauded the proposal of ICCI for establishing Metropolitan Commerce Unit in collaboration with MCI and said that concept paper of the proposal should be shared so that MCI could consider signing MoU with ICCI for execution of the proposal. It was agreed that PRIME would be made technical partner for MCU.

Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry in his welcome address said that metropolitan cities were driving innovation resilience and business expansion in modern economies and Pakistan should also focus on better development of metropolitan cities for attracting global trade and investment.

He said proposed Metropolitan Commerce Unit would generate data and information on key sectors of the local economy that would help MCI in better planning and facilitating the flow of trade and investment in the city.

Ayesha Bilal, Chief Operating Officer and Zia Banday Director PRIME said that Pakistan needs out of the box solutions to create a metropolitan-based economic governance model and added that establishment Metropolitan Commerce Unit  would be a positive step in that direction. They assured that PRIME would provide all sorts of technical support to make MCU a successful model for city development.

Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI also spoke on the occasion and said that MCU would fill the gap and develop synergy between municipality and chamber for better economic development of the city.