ISLAMABAD: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) Horticulture Exports Committee Regional Chairman Ahmad Jawad has said continuously decline in exports during the last four years was a matter of great concern, which raises a question on the performance of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).
In a statement issued on Sunday, Jawad said, “Only way for the sustainable economy is to increase our exports and remittances.”
Despite the fact Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made it’s all efforts to revive the poor performance of country exports, but the lethargic attitude of the TDAP officials has put its credibility at stake for years, said a press release issued by the FPCCI.
Jawad said there is a need for the revival of the TDAP to enable it to cater to the needs of the exporters, to strictly monitor the performance of the trade officers working abroad, to work efficiently on concluding FTAs and revising PTAs, and exploring new export markets.
Similarly, Pakistan seems really weak in its trade diplomacy and what government must do to focus on the performance of the trade officers abroad. They will be given performance targets. In this regard, the Ministry of Commerce may develop their KPIs and they will be held accountable for meeting the targets.
Similarly, the ministry should reorganise and reorient TDAP towards a business-friendly, export-facilitation body.
We must also understand that lack of interests in resolving issues related to exporters was also contributing a main tool for falling exports overall; and in this regard, the former TDAP CE SM Munir was the person who failed to highlight the problems in front of the government, including his failure 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 that the 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.
