LAHORE: Federal Commerce Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan Monday said that new Trade Policy 2015-18 was mainly focused on provision of maximum incentives to value addition in the export sector.
Addressing a seminar on "Pakistan Auto Sector and Difficulties" organized by LUMS University Law School here, he said that incentives would be given to traders, exporters and industrialists to enhance overall trade volume.
All those shortcomings in the new trade policy had been removed, which in the past had caused reduction in exports and increase in trade deficit, he added.
The Commerce Minister said that Ministry of Commerce (MoC) was also working on international branding of Pakistani products.
He elaborated that funds of Rs 6 billion had been allocated for this purpose to facilitate the exporters, who wanted to get accreditation or testing of his/her products or any other service from abroad.
These funds would be spent transparently and on merit, he said, asserting that in the past, trade policies had failed to yield tangible results in the absence of a well-placed strategy.
Khurram Dastgir Khan said that Pakistan's auto sector had great potential to grow, adding that such policies were being introduced, which would help boost this sector and its exports.
He said that Pakistan exported raw material and semi finished goods, adding that foreign exchange reserves could be increased substantially, provided these goods exported after value addition.
He also underscored the need for incorporating modern technology as well as research culture in the value addition area of trade and exports to resolve the competitiveness problem of Pakistani products in the global market.
He mentioned that facilitation centers for the business and exporters community were also being set up, adding that despite global recession, a reasonable target of USD 35 billion had been set under the new trade policy.
The Commerce Minister said that government was all focused on economic revival and now the energy availability situation was gradually being improved and electricity tariff had also been reduced, which would definitely benefit the business and industrialists community.
According to an evaluation report of Europe, Pakistan's exports to European countries had increased by 33 percent in the first 20 months of GSP-Plus status, however, this raise in the exports could not show any difference due to 20 percent decline in Euro's value against US dollar.
Similarly, global recession that even brought down export figure of China, India, Korea and other countries by double digits, Pakistan also faced with exports' demand slowdown and her exports of raw materials and semi-finished goods witnessed steep decline, he maintained.
Khurram Dastgir Khan said that under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the government succeeded to stabilize the country's economy as well as making adequate arrangement for energy generation, while Pakistan was also being stabilized politically and this stability would ensure stability in economic and development policies.
The LUMS Rector Razzaq Daud, World Bank's Regional Advisor Haroon Rasheed, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Senior Vice President Almas Haider and others also addressed the seminar.
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