Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has urged the government to give high priority to the promotion of industry as it plays a dominant role in the economic development of a country.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool, President, ICCI said that developed countries are enjoying a high living standards due to focusing on industrialization which led to higher productivity of goods and services in these countries. However, Pakistan is still way behind in promoting its industrial sector due to which the country is largely dependent for its vital needs on industrialized world.

He said countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore have emerged as industrialized nations only because they accorded a high priority to the development of industrial sector. The result is that the share of industry in GDP of China in 2009 had gone up to 48.6%, Malaysia 42.3%, Korea 39.4%, Singapore 30% and Taiwan 29.2%.

He said the real key behind success of these countries lies in achieving maximum import substitution and export promotion through industrialization as the hub of development policy.

He stressed that Pakistan should also strive for enhancing the industrial share of the economy from current 18 to at least 30 percent as the growth and consequently the development of our country is closely associated with a well developed industrial base.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool said that industrialization will create multiple benefits for the country as it will create large-scale employment opportunities, make country self-reliant for socio-economic development, save foreign exchange through import substitution and earn more foreign exchange through export of high value industrial products.

He said for this purpose, all issues of industrial sector including energy problem and high credit cost should be addressed on priority so that with the creation of business friendly environment, industry could grow smoothly.