ISLAMAABAD – The private sector should focus on green industry products that would help them in enhancing exports of the country, said Romina Khurshid Alam, member National Assembly and parliamentary secretary for Climate Change.
Pakistan has great potential to promote exports of green industry products in European Union (EU) and other countries as the demand for such products was on the rise in the international market, she said during her visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI). She also discussed with the business community about the prospects of promoting investment in environment friendly green industry. Ministry of Climate Change is planning to organise a one-day Expo on sustainable development and environmental conservation on April 24, 2018 to highlight the students’ projects dealing with environmental issues, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change remarked.
She said the Expo is aimed at providing students a good platform to display their projects on environment. She sought the cooperation of ICCI to make the Expo a successful event.
Robina Khurshid Alam said that she was a member of Young Parliament Forum (YPF) and stressed that Young Entrepreneurs Forum-YEF of ICCI and YPF should sign a memorandum of cooperation to work for policy advocacy on youth issues and promoting entrepreneurship in youngsters. She also showed keen interest to work with ICCI on projects focused on economic empowerment of women.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, president of ICCI, said that due to communication gap between the private sector and parliamentarians, the voice of business community was not getting true reflection in policymaking process and urged that there was a dire need of promoting regular interaction between politicians and business community to formulate business friendly policies that would help in promoting business activities and improving the economy. He said green industry has a bright future and stressed that government should make conducive policies to promote investment in clean and green industry that would ensure sustainable economic growth of the country. He said that the cooperation and support of Ministry of Climate Change was crucial for strong policy advocacy on such issues.
He briefed the parliamentary secretary on Climate Change about the key initiatives of ICCI focused on youth entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women. He said ICCI was in the process of establishing Women Business Growth Centre to provide support to women startups and existing women entrepreneurs in promoting business activities. ICCI was also setting up a CPEC Facilitation Centre to facilitate joint ventures and investment in CPEC projects. Both sides discussed many areas for mutual cooperation to promote the business and economic interests of Pakistan.