Economic activities to continue despite COVID-19's new wave: PM Imran Khan

Economic activities to continue despite COVID-19's new wave: PM Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan Wednesday said that the economic activities will continue despite COVID-19 s new wave. Addressing a launching ceremony of the National Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Policy, the PM regretted that in the past, no government ever cared for the incentives and facilities for this sector. The incumbent government was according due importance to the SME sector as the biggest jobs giver sector and a huge source of wealth creation. The Prime Minister noted that SME growth in the country should be accelerated as another vital driver for GDP growth in the country. The government was laying special focus on the development of big cities as the real engines of growth for the national economy. The prime minister expressed these views while chairing a meeting on plan for big cities.The premier directed the authorities concerned to take all possible measures to clear hiccups in the way of completion of various development schemes in big cities on priority basis in order to provide maximum relief to the residents. The meeting was attended by Information Minister Ch Fawad Hussain, Industries Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, and Planning Minister Asad Umar. Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar joined the meeting via video link. “Due to rural to urban areas migration, the cities are facing multiple challenges including housing, job opportunities and civic amenities are scarce. It is necessary that work on special development packages for the big cities must be accelerated,” the PM said during the meeting. He also directed the authorities to work in close coordination and launch a concerted campaign for the uplift and development of big cities like Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalsbad, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala. Moreover, the Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the government had decided to take strict action against all those responsible for creating hurdles for any enterprise in the export, agriculture, industry or service industry sectors. He emphasized that whosoever created hurdle the path of export department, strict action will be taken against them. Singapore s exports are higher than Pakistan s, Singapore s exports are 300 billion dollars, Malaysia also got ahead of us, Pakistan was developing rapidly in 1960, Pakistan started going down due to wrong decisions. It cannot happen like out of 220 million, only 2 million people pay taxes. He added that when we were spared by COVID-19, a wave of inflation hit the country. Despite Corona, the country collected a record export; remittance and record tax were collected.

The government collected a tax of 8000 billion despite COVID-19, now 6000 billion taxes have been collected. Record production of wheat, sugar, maize, rice has been achieved; it is clear that global inflation has been increased.

The sale of motorcycles, cars, mobiles were sold in the historic record. He went on to add that there are difficulties but the upcoming days will be better for the country.