ISLAMABAD: Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Shah on Monday said there is a huge difference between the country’s imports and exports as according to the data of April, the total import bill stood at $ 72 billion and export bill stood at $ 28.7 billion.
During question hour session of the National Assembly, the minister said while replaying a supplementary question of Dr Fehmida Mirza that there is $43.3 billion trade deficit while during the tenure of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government, it was not more than $35 billion. He said that efforts were underway to reduce the trade deficit in the next financial year. He said that the difference would be made $ 4.2 billion due to imposing ban on luxury vehicles.
In written reply to a question, Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar told the House that after strenuous effort, Australia accredited additional two Mango Hot Water Facilities of Pakistan in May 2021. This has increased Pakistan’s export capacity for mangoes to the Australian market.
He said that under the initiative a series of B2B session on various IT issues were held last year. Assumedly, due to increased financing in the IT sector, Pakistan remittances from Australia have also increased by 43 per cent from $ 474 million in 2020 to $ 676 million in 2021. He said that the government has launched “Made in Pakistan for Australia” campaign on Facebook and Twitter for enhancing the country’s exports with Australia.
In another written reply, Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar said that as an important tool of trade policy, the government vigorously tries to seek liberal market access for Pakistani rice from European Union, to China to the USA and other countries. He said that due to such efforts, the export of rice hovers above the market of $ 2 billion per annum. He said besides, the government has constituted and notified a Council for Rice on 31-03-2022 to provide a platform where expertise of the private and the public sectors converge to advise government to enhance production and increase the export of rice.
Responding to a supplementary question of MNA Shamsun Nisa, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi said that the main aim of the campaign was to increase exports by running different promotional campaigns about Pakistani quality products such as home textiles, spices, sports, goods, mango, etc being sold in Australia especially in the mainstream chain stores.
He said that the platform was also being promoted during different events organized/attended by the Consulate General for public outreach.
Furthermore, he said Pakistani dates have been introduced in Woolworths the largest supermarket chain in Australia. This is the result of the efforts to explore new markets for Pakistani dates.
According to a written reply to the question of MNA Mussarat Rafiq Mahesar during question hour in the National Assembly, Minister Incharge of the Prime Minister’s office told that 98 per cent complaints had already been disposed of.
Approximately 3,300 complaints on average were received per day on Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP) since its inauguration of PCP on October 28, 2018.
Regarding feedback of complaints, he said nearly 46 per cent positive feedback was received from the citizens. He said the resolution of public complaints on PCP was a continuous process that involves multi-organizational role.
In March, a total of 109,532 complaints were lodged. Of which, 134,647 were disposed of. Nearly 60,713 feedbacks were received including 21,317 complaints. In April, as many as 55,418 complaints were received by the PCP. Of which, 99,428 complaints were disposed of. While positive feedback was 13,614 from out of 38,498 feedback received. In May, as many as 14,996 complaints were received and 15,585 were disposed of. As many as 4,262 total feedbacks were received including 1,495 positive feedbacks.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022