ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Sunday expressed the hope that the country’s exports will reach the $50 billion mark by the fiscal year 2023 as the country is following the policy of trade diversification in potential trade sectors and markets.
In an interview to the state-run news agency, Dawood said that export diversification, focus on non-traditional sectors and increasing exports to new markets, including the African market, would not only enhance the volume of the country’s exports, but would also help achieve the export targets.
‘Made in Pakistan’ is the government’s top priority trade policy, which aims to introduce Pakistan’s traditional and non-traditional export sectors and local products in the international trade market. He said that now the export of mobile and motorcycle from Pakistan would be started within the same trade policy.
He said the export of these two products to the global market would usher an era of exporting engineering products from the country. He said that at present, the share of engineering goods exports in the global trade market was 51 percent.
He said that Pakistan now wants to make a name for itself in the world in non-traditional sectors, including engineering and pharmaceuticals.
The adviser said that in the recent past, when the United States, Secretary of States for commerce visited Pakistan, he had identified in his trade facilitation scheme, Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a number of traditional trade products in which Pakistan has not yet shipped goods to the US trade market.
He added the US GSP programme provides non-reciprocal, duty-free tariff treatment to certain products imported to the United States from designated Beneficiary Developing Countries (BDCs).
Most of these items came from Pakistan’s traditional commercial products, including textiles, which were now being worked on diligently. “Geographical trade diversification and search for new markets will further increase our exports,” he said. And in this regard, the government wanted to increase exports to Europe and the United States by making its trade goods globally competitive, he added.
Replying to a question, he said that now the manufacturing of motorcycles has been started in Pakistan and with this Pakistan would start exporting up to 10,000 motorcycles which would be increased up to export of 30,000,000 motorcycles annually in the coming years. He said that Japanese company ‘Honda’ has decided to set up its own manufacturing plant in Pakistan, which will make Pakistan a hub of motorcycle manufacturing. They will start exporting motorcycles worth $30 million from Pakistan in coming years.
Replying to another question, he said that Pakistan’s exports touched the mark of over $25 billion over the past fiscal year 2020-21, and now the government has set an export goal of $38.7 to 40 billion for the current FY 2021-22. He said the export goal for the previous year was $ 25.3 billion for items and $6 billion for the services sector.
He said that the country’s Information Technology (IT) exports had grown at 47 percent, which indicates that IT exports crossed the mark of $2 billion.
