Increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) by 76.1 percent during July 2008 over the same month of last year indicates that incentives provided by the government are attracting investors, but widening balance of payment gap calls for establishing export-oriented industries.
"Pakistan can attract foreign direct investment from the Middle East and even from China whose demand for food products is also on the rise, while India is also a big market for export of agriculture products export." This was observed by President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Muhammad Ijaz Abbasi here on Monday.
He further said that presently Pakistan's economy was in deep trouble and the challenges demanded of economic managers to give up the old ways of promoting growth, developing agriculture sector that presented a lot of opportunities to fetch huge foreign exchange by enhancing farm products exports. "So far, our industrial sector remained the main focus of development to increase the country's exports due to which agriculture sector could not be developed in tune with the changing times", said Ijaz.
He further said that the recent phenomenon of food crisis and rising food prices in the world had created new opportunities for agriculture sector due to which it had the potential to become the most dynamic part of the economy, helping to accelerate the rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) growth, reduce incidence of poverty to narrow the inequalities in distribution of wealth.
The data collected by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) revealed that the export of food commodities had increased 121 percent in July 2008 over the corresponding period of last year. Ijaz Abbasi said rising oil prices had greatly increased the transfer of incomes to the oil producing and exporting countries of the Middle East due to which the demand for agricultural products was growing rapidly in these countries.
So the exports of oilseeds in July 2008 increased by 330 percent as compared to the same period the last year. The exports of fruits and vegetables in July increased to 27 percent. The ICCI President said this phenomenon had particularly increased the demand for high value-added agricultural products in these countries like animal products, exotic fruits, vegetables, flowers and many types of processed foods. The ICCI President said this type of approach would bring multiple benefits to Pakistan.