ISLAMABAD: Mian Shaukat Masud, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ICCI) along with a delegation from the chamber met with the Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim in his office. The Federal Minister apprized the delegation about his successful visit of European Union (EU) along with the President. We tried to convince the European Community that we want trade, the Minister maintained. The delegation shared with the Minister that overseas Pakistanis are interested to invest in Pakistan; however they need some conviction from the government side in this connection. The Minister expressed his resolve that the government would provide every possible comfort to them to invest in their country.
The delegation expressed concern over the power outages in Islamabad, which had affected the steel industry in Islamabad. The Minister assured that government has directed the concerned authorities to resolve the problem on war footing bases. The delegation also showed concern over the demand of small trader’s chambers. Their plea was that despite of the fact that Islamabad is a small city; the membership of ICCI has reached to the tune of more than 3000. Anybody who fulfils the criteria is granted membership without any discrimination, so the demand for creation of a new chamber for small traders carries no weight. The Minister assured the delegation that their input regarding trade policy would be accommodated, which is expected to be announced in the third week of July.—RT