ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called upon the government to focus on the development of engineering sector as it has huge potential to put the country on fast track economic growth and improve exports.
President ICCI, Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, said that as per latest report of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the growth of engineering sector has dropped more than 18 percent during the fiscal year 2014-15, which should be a cause of great concern for the policy makers.
He said many countries including China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and many others have achieved phenomenal economic growth by focusing on engineering sector. Resultantly, this sector accounts for more than 65 percent in their total trade and around 50 percent in their total exports.
He said globally, the engineering goods constitute more than 60 percent of the world trade and account for about 20 per cent of India’s total exports. However, the share of engineering sector in Pakistan’s exports is just around 4 percent, which is very negligible. It shows that successive governments have ignored this vital sector of the economy due to which the country is still struggling for development. Citing an example, he said in 1970, South Korea’s economy was $8 billion while Pakistan’s economy was $10billion but in 2014 South Korea’s economy has reached $1500billion while Pakistan’s economy was around $300 billion. He said engineering sector was the main driver of Korea’s economic growth.
Muzzamil Sabri said that Pakistan mostly depends on textiles and few other low value items for exports. However, the share of engineering goods is increasing in world exports and it is high time that government should accord top priority to developing this sector in order to get better share in the world market of more than $ 6 trillion. He said even one percent share in global engineering trade could reportedly fetch Pakistan about $ 200 billion in exports, which shows its immense potential for strengthening the economy of our country.
He said fostering the growth of engineering and IT sectors would bring plenty of benefits to the country as it would translate into better industrialization, enhance exports, substitute imports, generate massive employment opportunities for the rising youth and add significant value to our economy. Thus engineering sector has the potential to become an effective tool for achieving sustained economic growth of the country and get rid of poverty.
