Daily Times

KARACHI: The government incentives and special package to exporters with reduced taxes and preferential treatment would turnaround the increasingly huge trade deficit of the country, executive members of export-oriented industrial and agro-based sector have asserted.

They have urged the ministers of commerce, industry, and finance and financial managers of the government to take concrete measures in direction to facilitate business community for a significant increase in exports from Pakistan.

The country’s exports should increase by 30 percent annually and there is an urgent need to bring down cost of all the essential utilities, at par with the regional competitors, to promote the country’s textile, leather, surgical, marble and other sectors value-added exports.

This would definitely help increase the exports to $35 billion to achieve targets set by the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2015-18.

The most critical challenge of the industrial sector and of the country in general is to overcome the energy crisis and to ensure sufficient and affordable supply of power that is essential to maximise industrial productivity.

There is a need to further strengthen the law and order situation and eliminate terrorism to optimise economic progress. The government should invest greatly and conduct active trade-diplomacy and trade-exhibitions, to develop export-sector over next three years.

The country has a great opportunity to increase its share in global trade, through fresh economic activities generated by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, regional trade arrangements and Strategic Trade Policy Framework.
At this juncture, government should take bold steps to reduce the cost of doing business, ease market-access, strengthen its institutions and improve competitiveness through professional training and lowering costs of industrial inputs.

A business-friendly environment will enhance investors’ interest, restore confidence of the export-oriented industrial sector and help in resolving the issues of common people as well.

The economic managers of the government should provide new opportunities by exploring new international markets by activating the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.

There are vast opportunities of opening fresh vistas of trade with East-Asian and African regions while entering into Preferential-Trade Agreements with developed countries that promise high-potential for value-added exports. It is a good omen that the government has been already negotiating free-trade agreements with Thailand and Turkey. Presently, country has become the focal region for large-scale foreign investments. A transnational initiative-China Pakistan Economic Corridor worth over $55 billion is underway.

Published in Daily Times, August 26^th 2017.