SIALKOT: The Cutlery Association Pakistan has urged the federal government to announce special incentives for boosting cutlery exports from Wazirabad and Sialkot in the next federal budget 2015-16, besides announcing trade and export-related special incentives for the cutlery industry.
The leading manufacturers and exporters of the cutlery instruments including Muhammad Khalid Mughal, Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal, Hameed Akhtar Chadha, Haji Mushtaq Ahmed and Zafar Iqbal Bhutta said that the sector has the potential and opportunities to double the exports of kitchen knife, spoons, kitchen tools, hunting knife, pocket knife, daggers and swords from existing $100 million to $200 million.
They urged the government to patronise the cutlery industry properly and help the cutlery manufacturers and exporters to explore and capture new international trade markets for diversified traditional and non-traditional cutlery instruments’ exports. They said that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) should come forward and play its pivotal role in ensuring easy access of Pakistani cutlery exporters to the European markets as well.
The urged the government, especially the TDAP, to help the cutlery exporters establish their international-standard ‘display centers’ in international trade markets of the US, France, South Africa, Canada, UAE, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Germany, saying that the government should announce as much as 80 percent financial subsidy for the cutlery instrument manufacturers and exporters in establishing their display centers abroad.
