The Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has decided in principle to close down Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company (PHDEC) due to its poor performance, claims FPCCI Standing Committee, Regional Chairman on Horticulture Exports, Ahmad Jawad. "I don't know why government is so in haste to close PHDEC rather moving towards the restructuring of this important Organization, regardless horticulture exports contributed $641 million in 2015-16 and still a lot of room of improvement is there if we get proper policy from the government", Jawad said.
He said in the last four years PHDEC didn't receive due attention from its parent ministry. The Ministry only sanctioned the salaries of the remaining staff but they did not approve any budget for any project, he added. Jawad said PHDEC was created in the tenure of Musharraf regime to promote non-traditional products and the government had created an independent entity other than TDAP in order to boost exports of horticulture sector.
He said mostly officials of the commerce ministry believed that after the 18th amendment, horticulture sector is under the mandate of the provinces and the federal government has nothing do with it. But they ignore the exports of horticulture sector as it is the responsibility of the commerce ministry to look after the affairs and problems of this sector," Jawad added.
Jawad said it was unfortunate that the horticulture export policy was not formulated by the ministry despite our repeated requests. In the last four budgets, the horticulture export sector was continuously ignored by the officials of the finance ministry. He said factually, in recent years, developing countries have created a space for themselves in this market, but they are not able to move beyond 4 per cent to 5 per cent of the world trade and in comparison of Pakistan's share is just 0.3 percent.
"However, under the Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) for 2015-18, the commerce ministry chalked out a short-term export enhancement strategy through which the ministry has identified four areas, including horticulture but it has been given no importance practically," he lamented.
The FPCCI standing committee chairman urged the government to admit that the horticulture sector had not received the attention it deserved. He said Pakistan's horticulture industry is well-distributed among the various climate zones which ranges from the sub-zero temperature of mountains of North to dry and humid plains of Punjab in the centre of the country and to the coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh.
He said it has been proved that the potential for horticulture exports is enormous and by putting it under the STPF, the government has accepted this fact. However, there is a growing need for the government to strengthen the sector and that can only be done by giving it more attention, he added. Jawad urged the commerce ministry to revisit their decision and run this Organization through appointing professionals so that million dollars worth of horticulture exports may flourish under the PHDEC independently. The ministry should also understand that the TDAP is already loaded with other sector and its agriculture products wing is not properly functional as required.
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