The newly elected MCCI head, Anis Ahmed Sheikh while talking to this scribe said that the main objective of the Chamber was the promotion of trade and industry and all available resources would be utilised for economic turnaround as the economic meltdown had now started taking its toll and everybody was suffering badly.He said that the business community would have to spend its energies for increasing exports, particularly the exports of non-traditional items. Sheikh said that high mark-up was crushing the whole industrial sector like anything and this needs to be taken care of by the concerned authorities. The Federal Board of Revenue should also focus on simplification of taxes as existing procedures were cumbersome in comparison with other economies of the world.Anis Sheikh said that research and development was an area, which, if was given proper attention, could do miracles. He said that the LCCI would, in collaboration with business community, work for the promotion of research culture in Pakistan.About his priorities called for executing the on-going projects initiated by the MCCI and tightening of belt to wear off the intensity of ongoing economic crisis. He, however, expressed fear that if the belt was not tightened by both the government and the private sector, the answer would be nothing else but more poverty and joblessness.He said that tight monetary policy was not the only solution to fast increasing inflation but it could be tackled easily by increasing production and cutting unnecessary expenditures. He said that the business community would have to spend its energies for increasing exports, particularly the exports of non-traditional items.
