PM Imran Khan announces incentives package for industrial sector

LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday announced an incentives package for the country’s industrial sector with a special focus on attracting investment and strengthening export-oriented industrial and manufacturing base.

Addressing a ceremony in Lahore, the prime minister invited overseas Pakistani entrepreneurs to invest in the country’s industrial sector. Apart from the expatriates, he said local businessmen in joint ventures will also enjoy a five-year tax holiday with no questions to be asked.

“The government is doing this all to promote export-oriented industries that are vital for the country’s socioeconomic development and progress,” he maintained, stressing the need for measures to strengthen Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and revive sick industrial units.

PM Khan emphasised that there is a need to attract nine million Pakistani expatriates to invest in their homeland by incentivising and giving them confidence on the protection of their hard-earned capital. He was of the view that countries cannot achieve progress only by producing wheat and vegetables.

He said the present government decided to promote industries, particularly export-oriented industries.

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“Lacks of long-term planning, shortage of dollars, less or no growth in exports force the country to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he lamented.

PM Khan said the incumbent government’s two-pronged industrial policy focuses on the promotion of SMEs with improved regulations and ease of doing business.