Daily Times

KARACHI: There is a dire need to expedite result-oriented initiative and take steps to strengthen local production value chain to boost the country’s exports.

However, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has made no concerted attempts to assess sectoral competitiveness and perform value chain analysis of selected export sectors of the country.

The Global Value Chain (GVC) initiative was launched in 2017 under European Union (EU) funded Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA II) programme in collaboration with TDAP. It aimed to assess sectoral competitiveness and perform value chain analysis of selected ready-made garments, leather gloves, rice and gems and jewellery sectors.

This programme was funded by EU, implemented by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation in collaboration with International Trade Centre and World Intellectual Property Organisation.

This programme was aimed at strengthening capacities of Pakistan to participate in international trade. The overall objective of this programme was to support economic integration of Pakistan into global and regional economy. The central objective of training was to guide professionals to independently carry out value chain analysis in different sectors.

According to Agha Saiddain of export-oriented leather and Ghulam Rabbani who works in the textile sector , their contribution makes up around 20 percent of total exports of country. They were of the view that the recent decline in the exports share of Pakistan in global markets could be attributed to quality and production constraints in domestic production value chain.

High prices, production constraints and quality constraints have led to reduced market share for Pakistan’s exports products. It is imperative for Pakistan to take steps to strengthen local production value chain and boost its exports. This can be made possible with continued support of EU.

The stakeholders should be given more facilities to attend training programmes on sectoral competitiveness and value chain analysis being held abroad off and on. The commerce managers of successive governments remained dull in formulating Pakistan’s trade policies on firm footings. It is also necessary to highlight complementary policy agendas that leverage engagement in Global Value Chain and formulate inclusive growth and employment strategies.

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of appropriate research facilities in Pakistan, especially in this increasingly important area.

“Pakistan has expertise and capabilities in several fast growing sectors like onyx, marble, surgical goods, hand-knitted carpets and sport goods and it can get a better share in international export market. But past successive governments have miserably failed to bring any bigger economic gains due to apathetic attitude of commerce and trade managers on the helm of government affairs,” said All Pakistan Marble Mining Processing and Exporters Association Chairman Sanaullah Khan.

Published in Daily Times, July 21^st 2018.