Export competitiveness hinges on shared sustainability responsibility: Experts

LAHORE: Pakistan’s export competitiveness requires a fair distribution of the financial and operational burden of sustainability among global brands, local manufacturers and governments, participants at a national stakeholder conference said.

The views were expressed at a sectoral dialogue titled “Currents of Changes: Textile Compliance, Shared Responsibility, and Pakistan’s Power Market Transition,” organised by Alternate Development Services (ADS), with participation from industry representatives, policymakers, regulators, researchers and energy experts.

National Grid Company Chairman Fiaz Chaudhary said power-sector reforms had often failed to address structural problems, while institutional restructuring without effective replacements and the erosion of meritocracy had contributed to reform failures. He said around 70 percent of DISCOs were performing according to international standards, while governance issues persisted in the remaining 30 percent. Instead of privatising all DISCOs, their problems should be assessed and addressed individually, he added.

Chaudhary said changing electricity demand patterns, particularly due to solarisation, posed a major challenge. He also said the IPP model introduced after WAPDA’s unbundling had created significant challenges for Pakistan. However, he said the power sector was moving in the right direction and termed the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) an important reform that could help Pakistan shift from a state-controlled single-buyer model to a competitive wholesale electricity market.

ADS CEO Amjad Nazeer said the conference aimed to develop practical solutions to challenges relating to textile compliance, decarbonisation, financing, buyer expectations, technology, and workforce capacity. He said ADS’s Shared Transition Responsibility Movement (STRM) sought to promote shared responsibility for sustainability, with industry input being sought for its implementation.

NEPRA Director General Licensing Imtiaz Hussain Baloch said energy policy involved balancing numerous competing variables, making it difficult to consider any single market solution entirely right or wrong.

APTMA Energy Adviser Asim Riaz said the Iran-US war had made energy security a major global challenge, while CTBCM could help Pakistan better utilise domestic resources and improve energy self-reliance.

National Productivity Organization Director Aftab Khan said reliance on untrained labour increased SME production costs. NPO had conducted resource-efficiency and energy audits at more than 1,000 SMEs and industrial units, helping reduce costs and improve productivity.

LUMS Energy Institute Director Naveed Arshad said motors accounted for around 85 percent of industrial electricity consumption, while energy conservation and digitalisation could reduce consumption by 20-30 percent.

Punjab University’s Prof Dr Shahzad Maqsood highlighted the potential of industrial-waste recycling and called for commercially viable solutions for solar-panel and battery waste.

Dr Syed Ali Abbas Kazmi of NUST highlighted the technical and economic implications of industrial solarisation and battery energy storage systems, warning that poorly designed CTBCM rules could create stranded-cost risks.

ADS Energy Transition Officer Ashfa Ashraf called for global brands to co-finance sustainability efforts rather than placing the burden solely on manufacturers in the Global South. She highlighted the Pakistan Shared Transition Responsibility Consortium’s focus on co-investment, procurement reforms, transparency and sustainable manufacturing.

Muhammad Usman Bin Ahmed, ADS Energy Transition Officer, presented a CTBCM Readiness Toolkit to help industrial buyers and sellers assess their technical and financial readiness for bilateral power contracts.

Panel discussions stressed co-investment, public-private partnerships, Just Transition principles and Digital Product Passports, while another panel examined renewable-energy integration, grid infrastructure and energy efficiency as key factors for industrial competitiveness and resilience.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026