ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICC) Sheikh Amir Waheed, has called upon the Paksitan Thereek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to cooperate with the private sector in promoting exports as without exports promotion, it was not possible to overcome the rising trade and fiscal deficits of the country.
He said during FY 2017-18, Pakistan’s trade deficit surged to $34 billion which was record increase in the country’s history,said in press release issued by ICCI here on Saturday.
He said that it reflected that instead of promoting exports, the country was depending on imports to meet its needs. Sheikh Amir Waheed said that Pakistan’s exports have been struggling for the last many decades while the exports of its neighbors have been improving.
He said in 1992, Bangladesh’s exports were $2.098 billion which have increased to $35.96 billion by 2017. However, Pakistan’s exports improved from $7.3 billion in 1992 to $21.569 billion in 2017 which showed that the country remained unsuccessful in promoting exports according to its real potential.
He said that Pakistan was mostly depending on textiles for export while its share of textiles exports in the world market have come down from 2.2 percent to 1.7 percent.
The ICCI President said that during the last 25 years, India has reduced its dependence on textiles exports by focusing on Information Technology (IT) services, auto parts, pharmaceuticals and light engineering goods due to which India’s exports have crossed $298 billion in 2017.
He urged that Pakistan should also focus on diversification of exports. He emphasized that the government should support the private sector in value addition of products so that Pakistan could improve its exports by exporting value added products.
Senior Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Naveed Malik and Vice President Nisar Mirza said that energy cost in Pakistan was highest in the region which was a major hurdle in promoting exports.
They stressed that the government should focus on indigenous and renewable energy sources to produce cheap energy that would bring down the cost of doing business, foster business activities and promote exports.
(APP)
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