LAHORE – The LCCI is ready to join hands with the government for the formulation of a comprehensive policy to overcome the challenges of unemployment.
If the situation is not controlled in a proper manner, it may go out of hands for many years to come creating a bad name for the government, said President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mian Tariq Misbah, Senior Vice President Nasir Hameed Khan, and Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry in a statement issued here on Thursday.
They said the recent spike in COVID-19 rates again risk the health system, lowering growth, upsetting recovery, and can push the most vulnerable further into poverty.
The LCCI office-bearers emphasized the use of PPEs in the workplace and have also urged the government to ensure the implementation of SOPs to reduce the risk of a further lockdown situation.
They said the poverty rate, which was declining to 24.3 as of 2015, can reverse sharply and push up to 40 percent of Pakistanis living below the poverty line in COVID-19’s viral wake.
Earlier the World Bank warned that ‘as many as 115 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty this year due to the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic’.
This could be a shocking comeback from decades of development progress and work, they said, adding most drastic measures are the need of the hour and the government must start taking actions on both fronts reducing poverty, generating employment while fighting the pandemic at the same time.
The LCCI office-bearers said if the government wants to converse any serious setback which can halt the process of development and to reduce the poverty it would need to prepare for an unalike economic approach by allowing manpower, capital, skilled labor, and new innovation to move into new businesses and sectors.
They were of the view that the post-COVID era demands more proactive measures and its response must be appropriate and according to the situation including education policy and helping the businesses to go online by introducing technologies. The businesses can adapt to the situation and the focus should be on the workforce which should be prepared for the changes and can adapt and work with new approaches for which the government must and quickly take action.