The entrepreneurs asked the government to give special incentives to the cottage industry to strengthen the national economy, WealthPK reports. They said that the cottage industry is the backbone of the manufacturing sector as it plays a vital role in the development of the country. They said that millions of people in the country are associated with the cottage industry to earn livelihoods.

Talking to a delegation of industrialists in Lahore, Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) chairman Faheemur Rehman Saigol asked the government to provide special incentives to the cottage industry. The delegation, led by Ghulam Sarwar Malik, sought the help of PIAF leadership for the revival of the cottage industry. He said that the PIAF should play its role to get the issues of the industry resolved at the earliest.

He said that the cottage industry plays a significant role in strengthening the national economy by providing jobs to millions of people. He said that the government should announce a cottage city to promote the industry. He said that the cottage industry should be given a status, and the losses, incurred by the sector owing to smuggling and under-invoicing, should be controlled.

Faheemur Rehman Saigol said that the cottage and small-scale industries provided employment to more than 80 percent of the industrial labour force. He said that besides reducing joblessness and providing opportunities for self-employment, the cottage industry also met the local demands for industrial goods and saved foreign exchange.

He said that the cottage industry is important for the economic stability, poverty alleviation and employment creation of the country. He said that the economic revival of the country would remain a dream until and unless the government redesigned its policies and divert resources towards the cottage industry.

The PIAF chairman said that equal importance is given to small businesses in Bangladesh, China, South Korea and the United States. He said that those countries treat the cottage industry at par with the large-scale manufacturing sector.

He said that PIAF leaders would hold meetings with relevant officials to seek facilities for the cottage industry. He said that the government should devise short-term and sector-specific policies to break the economic logjam as it proved that the longer-term policies usually fell prey to political uncertainty in the country.

The government should expedite the process of consultation with the private sector as the business community is the real stakeholder and no policy should be finalised without consultation with the businessmen, he said in a statement, available with WealthPK.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPak