ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will undertake fresh trade initiatives with its regional and international trading partners to promote trade and boost economic growth in the country.
Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said this in a meeting with officers of the commerce ministry academics and experts. The meeting was held to discuss the strategies for doubling Pakistani exports in the next few years.
“It is high time for Pakistan to give primacy to trade and investment in its interaction with the world and focus on trade and investment reforms,” Dastgir said.
The minister said that in the modern economic history no country had shown meaningful economic growth without trade liberalisation and shifting focus from domestic trade to international trade. He referred to countries like China and India which had been able to sustain astonishingly high economic growth rates for years by specifically focusing on international trade which ignited a chain reaction of production in their domestic markets.
Bangladesh, Vietnam and several East Asian countries are more recent examples which reaped the dividends of similar reforms, he added. The minister was of the view that in trade liberalisation impediments were seen instantly but benefits lie in future which was not possible for everyone to comprehend.
