Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry lauded the government’s initiative for exempting imports of heavy machinery for oil and gas exploration and development from custom duties and other levies in order to enhance indigenous fuel production and stressed that the government should extend similar concession to the import of industrial machinery in the next mini-budget to upgrade the industrial sector and bring it at par with developed countries. 
 

Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that up-gradation of technology & machinery in indigenous industrial sector was the key requirement for rapid economic growth of Pakistan, but imposition of heavy duties and taxes on the import of some industrial machinery was the major constraint in uplifting the local industry. He stressed that government should allow duty free import of technology & machinery of local industry in the next mini-budget that would help in producing value added products and putting Pakistan on the path of accelerated progress and prosperity. 
 

Rafat Farid Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan was set to enter into the second phase of CPEC that would focus on industrial cooperation and establishment of Special Economic Zones in the country. He urged that before setting up SEZs, government should utilize all available resources for enabling industrial sector achieve excellence so that indigenous industry could enter into sustainable JVs with Chinese counterparts in CPEC. 
 

Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that many countries including China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong have achieved better economic progress by focusing on industrial sector development and emphasized that government should pay more attention towards uplifting the local industry that would enable it to produce high quality products and get better access to global market for exports.