President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Zahid Hussain has said that new trade agreements should not be signed unless the older ones are seriously reviewed as all such agreements have not benefited the country.
China imports almost 334 billion dollar worth of goods and services but Pakistan's share in Chinese imports remain at dismal 0.24 percent which if increase to five percent will result in $17 billion earnings.
Similarly, he said, Malaysia imports 35 billion dollar worth of goods and services while Pakistan share stands at 0.3 percent. He noted that the US and China have imposed restrictions on goods and services worth $400 billion which has benefited many other countries but Pakistan have failed to benefit from it.
He said policy to discourage imports should be reconsidered because of losses associated with it.
The policy of suppressing imports has damaged the industrial sector, left million of jobs and triggered inflation high resulting in unrest, he said.
He said that the stock market is thriving but foreign investment is subject to high interest rates and funds will find their way out of the country once the interest rates come down.
The stock market is a place where buying and selling take place and it has nothing to do with national development, he noted.
He noted that reports of international institutions about Pakistan are misleading because the same institutions have repeatedly projected that Pakistan will soon become an economic power.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the fact remains that the country is being run on borrowed money and the government has borrowed 10.4 billion dollars in one year up to September 30th. Pakistan will pay four percent interest on IMF loan while 5.5 percent interest will be paid on the rest of the borrowing which include loans from Arab and Chinese banks.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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