FAISALABAD. The Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) is making strenuous efforts to increase exports from Faisalabad and in this connection it was regularly sending trade delegations to different countries to explore new business opportunities, said FCCI President Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz while talking to a trade delegation before its departure to Germany.
Nawaz is heading this trade delegation while Sheikh Abdul Qayyum, former FCCI president, will discharge his obligations as deputy head of the delegation.
The FCCI president appreciated the GSP Plus facility extended by the European Union. He termed it an historic and diplomatic success of the present government and said that during the first year of this facility, Pakistani exports to EU countries recorded a phenomenal increase of 20 percent but next year the overall exports declined by 14 percent. He said that major cause of this decline is exorbitant increase in the cost of doing business coupled with other domestic and international issues.
The FPCCI president said that Pakistan can export more than 6,000 items to EU countries under the GSP Plus scheme but up till now our exports remained restricted to the textile sector only. He stressed the need that we must explore opportunities to export nontraditional items to these countries in addition to enhancing the existing textile exports by improving its quality. He said that most of the participants of this delegation are related to textile sector and they would explore opportunities for the export of technical textile to Germany as well as to other EU countries. He said that business community of Faisalabad was fully prepared to contribute its role in enhancing Pakistan’s exports to US$ 35 billion within next three years.
He urged upon the participants of the delegation to improve the overall image of Pakistan during this visit in addition to negotiating with their counterparts. The delegation was comprised of Muhammad Saeed, Abdul Waheed, Muhammad Munawar Ahmed, Muhammad Farooq, Mehmood ul Hassan, Shahid Nadeem, Muhammad Irfan, and Muhammad Amin.
