20000129

SBP body to overview

availability of credit

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan has decided not only to reactivate the National Credit Consultative Council (NCCC), which has been lying dormant, but will also soon constitute a separate credit committee to overview the availability of credit for industry and commerce in relation to their requirements.

Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, has further decided that the meetings of NCCC with which Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry are associated, will be held regularly.

In a letter sent to the FPCCI acting president, thanking him and FPCCI's managing committee for inviting him for a frank and candid exchange of views at the Federation House here on January 26, the SBP Governor expressed his gratitude for all the suggestions he received at the meeting.

As a follow-up of these suggestions, he said that "we are putting in place the arrangements whereby the State Bank of Pakistan will remain in touch with the FPCCI as well as other chambers on an on-going basis so as to have the benefits of their views in our policy formulation and decision-making."

Dr. Hussain also said that the State Bank of Pakistan was also establishing a banking advisory committee in the SBP comprising senior officials of the policy departments of the bank to address to the grievances of various segments of the business community on an on-going basis.

This committee will be accessible to the FPCCI and other trade bodies to look into any problems which could be redressed without any recourse to any other body.

An export advisory committee is also being set up in foreign exchange department of the SBP to look into the cases of overdue export receipts. This committee will have representatives from FPCCI in addition to the Export Promotion Bureau, he said.

He expressed the hope that the existing as well as proposed arrangements "should be considered adequate for the FPCCI and other chambers to express their views and remain in touch with the State Bank of Pakistan."