ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister s adviser on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday said the government has prioritized to more concentrate on perusing the “Make in Pakistan Policy” in current challenging situation after emergence of COVOD-19 pandemic to increase local exports in international markets.
“We are fully prepared to exploit the economic and trade opportunities expected in the wake of post COVID-19 pandemic to increase local production for promoting the Pakistan made products in global potential markets,” the adviser said.
“We perceive and expect more opportunities to promote bilateral trade and strengthen linkage with potential markets including European Union, China, Central Asian States, middle East and African region besides promoting regional trade in post pandemic environment,” he said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic challenge, now the world has completely changed and the government economic team knew it and keenly observing the situation to meet the post coronavirus challenges at economic and trade front.
He said that business processes would be completely different in post COVID-19 situation and such difficult times always bring out new opportunities, new products and new ways of thinking.
Razak Dawoood said that in the current emergence of new realities and paradigm shift in international trade and economic side, now this was a golden opportunity for Pakistan to pursue the “Make in Pakistan Policy.” He said that Pakistan must move towards on making products on its own rather than importing items.
Talking about the tariff structure, he said that the Ministry of Commerce was pursuing to bring changes in the tariff structure for the upcoming fiscal year, aiming at facilitating local production and thereby moving towards to local manufacturing to get “Make in Pakistan Policy successfully implemented.
He said the government wanted to decrease customs duties on raw material and also wanted to document the non-tax businesses to bring them in the tax net.
He said exports to different regions had increased as the exports to Middle East went up 36 per cent , African regions 10 per cent while the exports to Central Asian Countries especially Uzbekistan were also on rise.
