LAHORE
“Continuously declining exports during last four years is a matter of grave concern and a question on the performance of Trade and Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and officials of Ministry of Commerce (MoC). The latest report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regarding dwindling exports has put pressure on economy of the country.”
“Trade deficit, along with fiscal deficit, has been a perennial feature of Pakistan’s economy.”
This was stated by chairman Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) Regional Committee on Horticulture Exports, Ahmad Jawad in a statement here on Friday.
He said that despite the fact that the Prime Minister has made all out efforts to revive the poor performance of country exports, the lethargic attitude of the TDAP officials has put government credibility at stake since 2013 to date.
Jawad said that there was a need for revival of the TDAP to enable it to effectively cater to the needs of the exporters, to strictly monitor the performance of the trade officers working abroad, to work aggressively on concluding FTAs and revising PTAs and to explore new export markets.
He said, “Pakistan seems really weak in its trade diplomacy and what government must do to focus on performance of our trade officers abroad. They will be given performance targets. In this regard commerce ministry may develop their KPIs and they will be held accountable for delivering on targets. Similarly, ministry should reorganize and reorient TDAP towards a business-friendly, export-facilitation organization.”
Jawad said that we must also understand that lack of interests in resolving issues related to exporters was contributing a main tool for falling exports overall, in this regard the former CEO TDAP SM Munir was the person who failed to highlight the sector wise problems in front of the government including failed to revive the TDAP.
Jawad also underlined the need for value addition in the horticulture sector, as agriculture and horticulture sectors will be the important tool to develop FATA and Balochistan areas.
He was of the view that the horticulture sector did not perform well as value-addition dropped from 14.50 per cent (in 2005-06) to 11.30 per cent (in 2015-16).
He said “transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture can only be achieved by fully availing the synergy among pre-production and post-production cycles. That can only come by adding value at each stage.”
Listing international examples, Jawad said that Chile, China and India reaped rich dividends through investment on value-addition in agriculture, especially in horticulture products. Tanzania, a poor country, was able to make massive economic strides through investment on value-addition, he added.
The FPCCI Panel Chief mentioned that Bangladesh earned $6 billion by adding value to one million bales of cotton, whereas Pakistan earned only $1.5 billion from the same amount of cotton.
