Industries Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen on Tuesday underlined the importance of increasing local production of automobiles.
"There is a need to increase production of automobiles locally because huge automobile imports were disturbing country''s balance of payments," the minister said in a meeting.
The meeting, convened to discuss auto policy, was attended by Engineering Development Board (EDB) chairman Waseem Haqqie, vice chairman Imtiaz Rastgar, and former commerce minister Abdul Razak Dawood.
The minister also asked the EDB to focus on agriculture machinery because Pakistan is mainly an agriculture country and the agriculture machinery, like tractors, is in great demand.
Later, talking to newsmen, Imtiaz Rastgar said the meeting was convened to develop consensus and discuss automobile policy to meet the future demand. Merely increasing imports and not concentrating on the export of vehicles would more negatively impact the balance of payments.
He said two new manufacturing companies - Fox Wagon and Renault - would soon start production in Pakistan. He underlined the importance of developing engineering sector parallel to the cotton sector for sustainable economic growth.
He said because of the Chinese investment in the motorcycle sector, different companies have produced some 0.06 million motorbikes. "Now we are in a position to export motorbikes to countries like Nepal and Bangladesh," he added. He said Honda has expressed its desire to manufacture motorbikes in Pakistan and to export them from here.
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