Government urged for policy advocacy to remove tariff, non-tariff barriers

President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Mian Anjum Nisar has urged the government for policy advocacy to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers which Pakistani exports are facing in several markets of the region and beyond.

Pakistan should also encourage the foreign investment in exports oriented sectors. He underlined the need of exports diversification which are concentrated more than 75% on tradition items, textile, carpet, leather, rice and sport goods.

There need a shift in the composition of exports towards promotion high and medium technology products whose participation in the global trade is increasing.

While commenting on the low volume of exports, he stated that one of the reasons is concentration and dependence of Pakistan's exports on traditional items and limited markets. Pakistan's export has been stagnant at US $ 23 billion that may support to overcome deficit and economic development of the country. He added that the products included in Pakistan's export basket are facing high competitions from regional countries due to low cost of doing business along with huge facilities for exports extended by the competitor's governments.

He urged the government to facilitate the exports of non-traditional items such as pharmaceutical, electronics, chemicals and other engineering goods.

He also added that Pakistan should learn from the experience of the Asian economies like Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea as they promoted their exports through development of Small and Medium industries.

For the enhancement of export, we need to focus on value addition, aggressive marketing, branding, product diversification, research & development and competitiveness etc.

He emphasized to enhance the yield of agriculture productivity so that the sufficient raw material should be available for the exports of processed food and other agro based products. He emphasized the enhancement of exports through E-Commerce which will enhance competition with reduce transaction cost and will facilitate the large companies and SMEs as well.