Businessmen in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) showed serious concerns over the fact that large number of industrial units are lying sick in the country which is a great loss to the economy and called upon the government to take urgent measures for revival of these sick units.

Chairing the meeting, Karim Aziz Malik & Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, Vice Presidents, ICCI said that these sick industrial units have blocked investment worth billions of rupees, rendering thousands of skilled and semi-skilled workers jobless.

They said government should involve experts to identify the causes that led to the sickness of large number of industries and make a comprehensive strategy to solve those issues for early revitalization of ailing industries.

They said revival of sick industrial units will accelerate the pace of economic activities in the country as it will improve productivity, enhance exports, provide more jobs and increase tax revenue of the government. Therefore, all efforts should be made to bring them in the mainstream, he emphasized.

Karim Aziz Malik said high mark up rate, rising inflation, high prices of electricity, gas & POL products, energy shortage and deteriorating law & order situation are the main factors that are crippling industrial activities, adding miseries to the common man and causing slow down in economic progress of the country.

He was of the view that government should address these issues on priority to create a business friendly environment so that commercial and industrial activities could pick up pace that will help the economy in coming out of current recessionary phase.