Productive sector should get first preference in the upcoming budget.

ISLAMABAD -- President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said productive sector should get top priority in the upcoming budget.

The key to increased exports, revenue generation and job creation lies with the productive sectors which should be promoted to make country self-reliant, he said.

The veteran business leader said that the direction of the economy is not right while capital continues to flow towards speculation and services sectors because of good profits and less trouble while the industrial sector continues to suffer.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that country cannot end its dependence on loans unless the industrial sector becomes the most profitable sector for which policy intervention is necessary.

He noted that running industry has become so difficult that many industrialists have found refuge in speculation and trading.

The former minister said that ambassadors of the countries which have inked trade deals with Pakistan have complained that Pakistani investors are not interested in setting up industry and they prefer trading over everything else.

He said that imposing regulatory duties on imports has helped a lot to...