ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Trade and Commerce was held at Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Shibli Faraz.
Federal Minister for Trade and Commerce Khurram Dastagir Khan told the committee that trade policy for this year has been announced and implemented. He added that for reviewing the implementation status of the policy, meetings are conducted every month regularly and issues are discussed in detail.
While talking about the energy supply to industrial units, he said that as a result of government initiatives electricity is now continuously supplied to industrial units through industrial feeders 24 hours. He said, however, still some hurdles are there in supplying electricity to industrial zones that rely on mixed feeders. Regarding the quality control of exports up to the international standards representative of ministry of science and technology briefed the committee about the available resources for checking the quality of the products.
He said that technology and human resource available for testing of the products areup to the international standards and is recognized internationally. He further added that the basic role of ministry of science and technology with reference to the export products is to generate awareness among the people about the internationally recognized standards from exporter to a common producer. For this, different training programs, workshops and awareness campaigns are launched from time to time in different regions.
Ministry of trade and commerce told the committee after successful experiment of establishing expo-center in Karachi have established expo-center in Lahore. In these centres different workshops, training and awareness programs are conducted to accelerate internal trade and generate awareness regarding internationally recognized standards. He also said that PC 1 of establishing an expo centre in Peshawar has been made, and oland uis acquired. The expo centre will be completed by next year. Chairman committee while giving his remarks on quality control of export products included that the main issue in exporting best quality products from Pakistan is lack of awareness among the people about the preservation and representation of products.
He emphasized onaccelerating the efforts for generating awareness among the people regarding preservation techniques, packing styles/procedures and mobility of products with in time. Senator Hasil Bazinjo while talking about fruits and vegetable exports said that best quality fruits and vegetable cannot be exported unless cold storage facility is available. He emphasized on cold storage facility in highly cultivated regions so that wastage of fruits and vegetables could be avoided.
