Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) Women Wing President and FPCCI Executive Committee Member Fehmida Jamali on Sunday said that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) should increase exports in order to repay the loan of $11 billion by the government next year.
She said that the production cost, which was expected to be reduced by the government through subsidy, would stay unchanged as electricity charges for the industry had been fixed at 11 cents per units compared to seven cents in other countries of the region, which is aimed at boosting their exports by making products' prices compatible.
Talking to media, she said government would have to increase its exports and remittances for paying back rising debt obligations.
She said that external debt on Pakistan was mounting massively and Pakistan had to repay $11 billion in 2017-18; as Pakistan's external inflow situation was not very rosy and it would create shock waves for the economy.
It is imperative that TDAP, a main body for exports, should increase its exports and the volume of remittances so that repayment of loans could be easily made.
The importance of exports in a developing country's development path is obvious. The fact that this question has to be posed and answered is a sad reflection on our policymakers' priorities and a lack of comprehension; she added.
In addition to this, questions are being raised about the institutional capacity to execute the policy as the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and its CEO doesn't have the capacity to promote exports beyond traditional products which needs to be addressed on priority.
Fehmida further said that the recent performance of the country's exports dovetails into a larger - and worrying - picture of long-run stagnation and decline relative to other dynamic developing countries. While Pakistan's market share of global exports is one way of looking at this, and which has declined from 0.16pc in 1990 to a paltry 0.13pc, the statistic that best captures our attention to exports and our 'export-orientation' is the size of the export sector as a percentage of the economy. Pakistan's merchandise exports have fallen to a shocking 7.3pc of GDP - from a peak of over 15pc in the early 2000s. At this level, merchandise exports are today at virtually the same level as worker remittances into the country - and at their lowest level in decades.
The comparison with other dynamic developing economies is stark. Vietnam, the star export performer since 2000 along with India (and in a restricted sense, Bangladesh), has an export sector equal to 90pc of GDP. Cambodia's is 68pc of GDP, India's has grown to 23pc of GDP (from around 13pc in 2000), Indonesia's is at 21pc of GDP. Even Sri Lanka's export sector is now 21pc of GDP, while Bangladesh's is rising fast and is currently at over 17pc of its GDP.-PR
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