Pakistan is facing enormous challenges and Government should adopt a strategic approach to find solution of aggravating problems by engaging private sector in a dialogue process and holding a Businessmen Conference on the key issues.

A Businessperson Council was formed almost couple of years ago by the government to get the input of businessmen on different sectors to resolve problems but only a few meetings were held without any result, said Mahfooz Elahi President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry while chairing a meeting of ICCI Economic Committee.

President ICCI proposed that Prime Minister of Pakistan should call a Businessmen Conference inviting representatives of the business community from all provinces to discuss key issues and get proposals for overcoming these challenges. He was of the view that strong alliance of the government with the private sector could bring good results and help in preparing a road map for economic recovery.

Pakistan was blessed with tremendous resources but mismanagement, corruption, political chaos, inappropriate measures and unnecessary delay in taking right decisions has created great difficulties for the citizens of Pakistan, thus, in the current fragile economic situation, the business community was ready to shoulder the government to overcome the economic turmoil, he maintained.

Elahi said that business community can help the government in increasing tax revenues through rationalization of taxes, whereas tax department should create an atmosphere of trust and leave the policy of milking the same cows. On RGST issue mechanism of implementation must be discussed thoroughly with the business community to remove confusions.

He said that negative trend in economic growth was as a result of lack of local and foreign investments. Persistent problem of shortage of electricity and gas, increase in cost of doing business were even forcing the local businessmen to look at other destinations for profitable investments. Government should take appropriate measures to stop this trend and hold a Businessmen Conference to deliberate such issues to prepare a national economic reform policy with public and private consensus.

President ICCI opinioned that by involving businessmen and government representatives Core Groups in taxation, energy and corruption should be formed to find the solution for increasing tax base, developing energy resources and to curb the menace of corruption that has badly damaged the image and credibility of Pakistan in the World.

The government should now stop adopting pull strategy and find its own way to come up as a self-reliant nation, he emphasized.