The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Association Front has urged the government to announce the Trade Policy 2015-18 at the earliest so that the business people could prepare themselves to enhance their production to boost the country's exports, said Front Chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh in a speech in a meeting of the executive committee members.
He urged the government and the Commerce Ministry to take representatives of the business community, export oriented industries on board for evolving an effective, result-oriented and practicable trade policy that could help achieve desired goal to enhance exports.
He said in 2012-13 the export volume was $25,110 million that was declined to $4110 million in 2013-14 and $23,885 million in 2014-15. "It is very important to take the business community into confidence immediately and devise a trade policy according to the requirement of business community. We need to address the issues of business community in the forth coming Trade Policy before we practically start doing trade with our neighbouring countries. Government has set export target of $50 billion during next three years that could only be achieved by utilizing all available resources," he added.
He also told the government to focus on promotion of regional trade for being more efficient in terms of cost and logistics. The inputs from the stakeholders would be more useful to develop a strategy of engagement with the regional countries which could benefit Pakistan's economy, he maintained. He said that serious efforts on the part of government functionaries that could enable Pakistan to take advantage of its strategic location.
"No doubt, Pakistan can play a pivotal role in transforming the region into a trade and manufacturing hub but that requires sincere commitment on the part of our commercial attaches who should play an active role rather than doing their routine and formal jobs" he maintained. He was of the view that the trade policy designed in consultation with the exporters and the stakeholders would help minimize negative impact on the country's economy.