Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro has said that the government is well aware that high-energy cost is a big problem and looking for ways to reduce it. He was speaking at the eighth export excellence awards ceremony of Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) on Monday night.
The Senate Chairman said if industrials and exporters faced any difficulty, they might bring the same into the knowledge of the standing committees of the Senate and National Assembly for assistance. The National Assembly and Senate had standing committees on each subject, he added.
He said the government was ready to provide all possible facilities to industrialists and remove hurdles to boost exports. The Senate chairman said that the proposed garment cities should be built earlier. Soomro advised the business community to improve quality, technology, assure timely delivery of goods, educate workers and polish their skills to boost exports.
He said that in exports, price was not the only thing which attracted foreign buyers, but it was timely delivery, quality of product which attracted them.
Speaking on the occasion, Export Promotion Bureau Chairman Tariq Ikram said the government was finalising an export plan to increase Pakistan's exports from 16.5 billion dollars to 40 billion dollars in the next five years.
He said Pakistan had potential to boost exports, and proposed target of increasing exports from 16 billion dollars to 40 billion dollars in next five years was well achievable.
He said according to estimates, Pakistan had potentials of export of one to two billion dollars Tuna fish, two to four billion dollars marble granite, engineering goods, services, jewellery, meat, poultry products etc.
He said it was totally a wrong impression that the government was ignoring textile sector, adding that Pakistan had raw material and very developed textile sector, which could not be ignored.
The EPB Chairman said the export growth in last six years remained excellent, and hoped that this trend would continue. Regarding high power rates, he said the business community knew that energy cost was higher in Pakistan and the government could not subsidise it.
Prgmea (South Zone) Chairman Atiq Ahmed Kochra said the garment industry, which contributed over two-third of Pakistan's export, paid billions of rupees in taxes, employed over 40 percent of the country's workforce, had invested billions of dollars in the past years, and still it was not the favoured once.
In fact, the value-added sectors were the ignored ones, which was evident from the latest government policy decisions.
He said an average a factory had 200 to 300 machines, and employed two workers per machine, and an average one machine cost Rs 20,000 only. This meant that two families were supported through an investment of Rs 20,000 only, he said, adding that no other industry could offer such a high number of employment at such a low investment.
He said the Prgmea honouring 20 top exports in terms of performance, and awarding two trophies, one for the category of top exporters and one for bottom-level exporter, who had achieved the highest unit value in those categories amongst all Prgmea members.
He said the purpose of those awards was to recognise and honour the efforts of exporters, who had excelled in the industry and to create a sense of competition amongst the members to achieve the highest goals.
Prgmea Chairman Bilal Mulla said, according to European Union's first quarter clothing import's report, per kilogram unit of woven clothing import from Pakistan in the first quarter of 2006 was 8.21 Euros, which was 8.18 Euros in the same period of 2005, so there was an increase of 0.03 Euros only.
However, for India, it was 24.09 Euros in the first quarter of 2006 and 21.01 Euros in the corresponding period of 2005, so the increase was 3.08 Euros per kilogram unit value of woven clothing imports.
From Bangladesh, it is 9.61 and 9.02 Euros for the first quarters of 2006 and 2005 respectively. He said this situation revealed that Pakistani products were not fetching high value as compared to India and Bangladesh.
He said the free market competition did not allow charging of even normal profit, however, the higher unit implied high value-addition in manufacturing.
He said it implied that Pakistan competitors were enjoying more benefits of the new market regime by supplying high value-added products and there was no doubt that this was achieved because of their government support.
He said if the current scenario remained same, Pakistan would gradually become raw materials exporter than value-added readymade garments. Later, the Senate chairman distributed awards among exporters.
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