President General Pervez Musharraf has set export target for 2006-07, at $19.5 billion and asked concerned authorities to work out an effective strategy to show better performance on foreign trade front this time.
The President was not satisfied with the performance of the government economic team on many fronts. The downward trend in key sectors of the economy during the last fiscal year was a cause of serious concern to him. He directed the government economic managers to take critical view of their strategy to improve performance in weak areas for ensuring growth in double-digit in 2006-07.
One participant of the meeting told Business Recorder on Saturday, the President referred downward trend in growth in agriculture, large-scale manufacturing (LSM), exports in 2005-06 in his speech and told ministers of respective ministries in clear terms he will like to have better result in all these areas next year to make economic growth robust in real sense.
He noted single-digit growth will not help the government cope with serious problems being faced by the people such as poverty, unemployment and rising trend in prices of daily-use items.
The President also took big shortfall in exports in 2005-06 very seriously and sought reasons from commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, who was among the participants of the meeting.
He asked the commerce minister to take everybody onboard to work out an effective strategy to achieve the export target for the current fiscal year. The President gave broader outline for the future export strategy based on an approach having diversified market to get more share to achieve enhanced exports target.
An official handout issued after the meeting quoted the President as saying growth target of 7 percent for 2006-07 was achievable through yield intensification in agriculture and higher productivity in the industrial sector.
He said new achievable targets for the industrial sector should be set, which registered a decline from 14.5 percent to 9 percent in the outgoing financial year and review of factors which caused the decline in exports.
The handout said the meeting was informed export target during the last year was set at $17 billion and there was a shortfall of $1 billion, however, exports registered an increase of 14 percent as compared to the previous year.
It was also informed new exports target for the current financial year would be achieved through higher growth in industrial and agriculture sectors, especially through value-addition in textile.
The President expressed satisfaction over foreign direct investment, which remained at $3.78 billion in the last financial year.
The Prime Minister, who also attended the meeting, assured the State Bank (SBP) will extend support to any sector of the economy requiring intervention on short-term basis and said it will provide temporary relief to the textile sector to enhance its competitiveness.
He said monthly review meetings would be held to evaluate achievements of targets and to take timely measure if required.
The meeting was attended by commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan and industries minister Jehangir Khan Tareen, adviser to prime minister on finance and revenue Dr Salman Shah, ministers of state Hina Rabbani Khar and Umar Ayub Khan, Dr M. Akram Sheikh, chairman, Export Promotion Bureau, governor, State Bank and senior officials of concerned ministries.
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