Industry growing at significant pace: PM
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday said that Pakistan’s industrial sector has shown significant growth during the last seven years and the rise in share to GDP of overall manufacturing from 23% to 26% and of large-scale manufacturing from 10% to close to 13% is a manifestation of this growth.
Chairing a meeting at the PM House to review the large scale manufacturing statistics, the Prime Minister said the industrial sector continues to maintain the strong growth momentum and it is heartening to note that the growth of large scale manufacturing in the first quarter of the current financial year is in double digits.
The Prime Minister reviewed the entire process of industrial statistics and said the availability of accurate data plays a critical role in future planning and development of the country. The government, he said, will continue to improve the system of data collection, compilation and analysis to make it more suitable for the future planning.
The Prime Minister asked the Federal Bureau of Statistics to complete the next Census for Manufacturing Industries (CMI) as soon as possible. He asked the Ministry of Industries to broaden the scope of data collection and involve industry associations in the process.
The Prime Minister also set up a committee to monitor the entire process of statistics collection, compilation and analysis. The committee comprises Ministry of Industries, Planning Commission, Federal Bureau of Statistics, Central Board of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance.
Earlier the Ministry of Industries in their presentation highlighted the growth performance of industrial sector and GDP contribution of various sub sectors. Federal Bureau of Statistics informed the Prime Minister that they are in the process of completing next Censuses for Manufacturing Industries (CMI) which has 44% more coverage than the 2000-2001 census.
The meeting was attended among others by Minister for Industries and Production, Jehangir Khan Tareen, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr. M. Akram Sheikh and other senior officials.