LAHORE: The consuming class that spends more than $11 a day is limited in Pakistan and makes only 5-10 percent of the country's population. People aged 14-35 happen to be major consumers of goods and services and they secure lion’s share of our population. Thus, they need more investment.
We need investment in sectors that are consumed by people in the center or bottom of the pyramid, and investment must come from domestic investors.
Pakistan has car and bike assemblers, but there are hardly any bicycle manufacturers in the country. Bicycles imported from China turns expensive and eventually out of reach of the poor. That’s one of the reasons we see less bicycles on the roads.
It’s good that the state is focusing on having more locally assembled cars, but it should also offer special concessions and exemptions to those willing to establish or reviving a local bicycle plant, which will go in favour of low end consumers.
The high-end consumers go for high tech and high-priced products for which the market is limited. This is the reason that no global investor is interested in establishing units for producing high end iPhone or top Samsung models in Pakistan.
Pakistan imports these gadgets increasingly despite heavy taxes imposed on their import. Similarly, we do not expect Mercedes or Porsche to establish their manufacturing facility in the country. These automobiles are only used by the elite or rich families, which are not in large quantity.
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