The time has come the government should seriously consider the causes of the declining exports. Pakistan’s exports stood at $25.11 billion in 2014 and $23.9 billion in 2015, but have reached $20.8 billion in 2016, showing constant decline during the last three years. According to newspaper reports, the country suffered an 8.2 percent decline in the first two months of the current fiscal year and if this trend continues, the country’s economy will reach a breaking point. The economic experts have already raised alarms on the falling exports, but the government ministers and policymakers are busy in their personal engagements and overall economy is losing its potential. The cost of doing business is on the rise, energy supplies have still not be restored to satisfactory level and directionless policies have already been costing the economy of its strength. At this time, the prime minister and his economic team are required to be proactive, but they are busy in other priorities.
One fails to understand why the exports of the other countries in the region are gaining momentum at the time of international recession to which the government officials hold responsible for the falling exports.The situation requires work on war footings, but the ministers are,unfortunately,not available to give a few hours to the official business. There is a need to launch concerted efforts on the federal, provincial and local levelsto remove bottlenecks in the way of exports. The government will have to rationalize taxes and slash the cost of doing business if it wants to spur economic activities in the country. The official cadre should feel the pain of falling exports and dim prospects of the economy when various third world countries, which started their journey long after Pakistan, have been progressing by leaps and bounds. There is a need to bring the ministries and stakeholders on one page to discuss the issue and find causes to improve exports. Exports are shedding billions of dollars every year and this trend must be stopped. As a matter of fact, the government financial and trade policies are the main hurdle in the development of the industrial sector which produces value added goods.
On another note, falling exports have expanded the trade deficit to $24 billion at the end of the previous fiscal year as imports bulged to $44.8billion against $20.8 billion exports. The trade gap has reached $4.75 billion only within the first two months of the current fiscal year. So far, the government thrust remained only on the collection of revenues without realizing how much damage this move will cause to the economy. The time is running out and the government will have to take realistic approach to boost exports
