Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called upon the government to cooperate with private sector for local manufacturing of high-tech products and diversification of exports in order to enhance the country’s exports and improve trade balance.

 

Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that private sector was generating more than 80 percent of economic activities in the country and government should support it in diversification towards high-tech industry and value addition of products that will help in promoting exports.

 

He said Pakistan was facing trade deficit for the last two decades which showed that the successive governments remained unable to exploit country’s full export potential. He said in 1947-48, Pakistan’s exports were US$138 million and imports US$ 96 million showing a trade surplus of US$42 million. However, at the end of fiscal year 2013-14, our exports were around US$ 25 billion and imports around US$ 45 billion showing a trade deficit of US$ 20 billion. 
 

He said Pakistan’s share of world exports remained almost stagnant over the past three decades. He said according to a UN study covering the period from 1980 to 2011, India’s share of world exports have improved from 0.43% to 1.78%, Bangladesh’s from 0.04% to over 0.14%, Malaysia’s from 0.74% to 1.34% and Thailand’s from 0.37% to 1.35%, but Pakistan’s share of world export during this period remained stagnant at 0.15% which clearly reflected that our successive governments have failed to develop sound strategies to promote country’s trade and exports.
 

He said the main reason of Pakistan’s poor export performance was the lack of exports diversification with major reliance on low-tech products like textiles, garments and footwear. He said many countries of this region have achieved impressive export performance by focusing on high-tech products share of which in world trade was on the rise, but share of high-tech products in our exports basket could not move beyond 2 percent since 1980s. 
 

Muzzamil Hussain Sabri stressed upon the government to come up with new policies, strategies and better incentives for investors in order to encourage local manufacturing of high-tech products including electronic &, electrical, IT and telecom products for improving country’s exports and trade balance.