The world is facing a recession and is experiencing downward trend in business & economic activities while Pakistan being a developing country is no exception to this global phenomenon, however, Pakistan has the potential to mitigate bad effects of current economic slump by creating conductive environment and promoting its domestic commerce as development of domestic commerce will stimulate economic activities, enhance our exports and stabilize the economy of our country. This was stated Mr. Zahid Maqbool President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry while addressing a meeting of businessmen.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool said that domestic commerce is considered as one of the very important segments of our economy because it provides about 50 percent of the value addition to GDP and gives jobs to over 40 percent of the labour force in the country which shows its significance to our national economy.

ICCI President emphasized upon the government to take steps to boost the activities of domestic commerce as a dynamic and flourishing domestic commerce, which will accelerate growth of export sector. He said promotion of domestic commerce will also provide country a strong platform for international trade as it encompasses wide ranging sectors and sub-sectors of the economy including transport, storage, communication, wholesale & retail trade, construction, entertainment, tourism, real estate and domestic marketing etc. He further said that strengthening these areas of economy offers huge opportunities to bail out Pakistan’s declining economy.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool said the present state of affairs of domestic commerce is not encouraging as most of the domestic markets are not well organized; need improvement in regulation and infrastructure. He said that domestic marketing and commerce have also no adequate data and information to carry out further research and study. He said our population is increasing rapidly and during the next few years and the country will be required to create new jobs to accommodate its expanding workforce while a growing domestic commerce supported by a strong informal sector has the potential to create wide ranging employment opportunities and means of income in addition to proving effective means of import substitution. Therefore he called upon the government to take immediate measures to promote domestic commerce by creating enabling business environment for it and for this purpose, appropriate infrastructures along with transport and communication system should to be upgraded, so that the country could fully exploit this untapped potential and strengthen its economy.