ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production, and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday said the country’s exports would cross $25 billion benchmark and are expected to go as high as $27 billion by June 30, 2019.

He said that the country’s exports witnessed an increase of $1 billion in the past six months as well $600 million in previous December of 2018.

He said said “We are expecting $ 1 billion increase in the country’s exports in current months of January.”

From the outset, industrial growth, low exports and trade gap in the country were the biggest challenges for the government.

He informed that the media that draft of new commerce policy was ready for approval from cabinet within the next few days.

The Adviser said the government has introduced the reforms package for economic growth, in which “we want to give a direction to economy.”

The government attaches priority to the five major sectors including energy and now “ We will reduce duties on raw material on the inputs of 15 different sectors including  footwear, white goods, polestar, leather, home appliances and  chemicals except steel sector.” 

In reforms package, ‘We have restructured the duties on different sectors for increasing our exports”, he added.

The Adviser said the government intended to decrease imports, especially in the petroleum commodities including furnace oil.

Replying to a question, he said that three Chinese and Russian companies were interested to make investment in Pakistan Steel Mills (PSMs) Karachi and hopefully deal would be finalized in March.

He further added that the government had three options regarding PSMs, including the privatization, lease or self-management by PSM.

Replying to a question, the Adviser said that Pakistan has been enjoying free market access through Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP-Plus) for increasing exports.

Secretary Commerce, Muhammad Younus Dhaga said that “We regulate our imports according to the law of World Trade Organization (WTO) and there would be no harm to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with any country.

He said that the policy will provide cheap raw material to industry for enhancing country’s exports through proper mechanism.

(APP)

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