The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has shown concerns over the dwindling activities in the construction sector, which has contracted by 7.6 percent during 2019 according to the latest quarterly report of SBP as compared to its growth of 8.2 percent during 2018 and called upon the government to make conducive policies for construction sector so that it could play more effective role in the economic development of the country.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal President, Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that some regulatory measures of the government have damaged the growth of construction industry and stressed that government should avoid such anti-business measures in future. They said that during the tenure of previous government, non-filers were banned from purchasing immovable property worth more than Rs.4 million, which caused slowdown in the business activities of construction industry. They said that restrictive regulatory measures also caused reduction in the margins of real estate developers that led to the contraction of construction industry and stressed that government should reconsider all restrictive regulatory steps to remove hurdles in the way of growth of this important industry.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that during July-March 2019, the cement industry has also faced 5.4 percent decline of while it achieved 12.4 percent growth during the same period last year. He said during the last 8 years, this was the major decline in the cement industry as this industry has been achieving steady growth. He said the steel industry also experienced 11 percent contraction during the last 9 months as compared to 27.5 percent growth during the same period last year. He said the hefty depreciation in rupee has also significantly enhanced the cost of imported raw material for the construction sector that caused great slump in the business activities of this industry.
ICCI President said that the growth of many allied industries was dependent on the growth of construction industry and urged that government should formulate attractive and more conducive policies for this industry so that it could flourish and contribute effectively towards strengthening the economy. He was of the view that better growth of construction industry would also help the government in achieving the goal of constructing 5 million houses during its tenure.