Engineering Post Report
Industrial sector growth had turned positive after two consecutive contractions during 2018-19 and 2019-20, which was partly due to negative growth in Mining and Quarrying sub-sector.
Newly introduced mining policy was expected to attract investment in the sector thereby helping in growth revival during financial year 2021-22.
Construction sub-sector had benefitted from the government package and grown by 8.3 per cent during 2020-21. This momentum was most likely to be continued during current financial year 2021-22, according to the official sources concerned. Extension of support package for Naya Pakistan Housing initiative and higher in the Public Sector Development Programme , more than Rs 2 trillion worth of consolidated Development Plan was providing growth impetus in the construction activities in the country. Moreover, several initiatives that cut across numerous sector are already under implementation to spur industrialization.
The broad-based revival of Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) was projected to sustain growth at 6 per cent during ongoing financial year 2021-22. The sector has idle capacity and with the ‘ease of doing business’ related reforms, where Pakistan’s ranking has quite appreciably improved from 136 in 2019 to 108 in 2020, this sector was projected to maintain its growth momentum.
Moreover, collateral –free guarantee scheme for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was also expected to underpin overall manufacturing sector growth prospectus.
The buoyancy in construction, with spillovers in allied industries, and with the new entrants in the car industry, the overall manufacturing sector was projected to post moderate growth at around 6.2 per cent during financial year 2021-22, the sources maintained.
