KARACHI: Senator Saleem Mandviwalla has criticised the government’s trade policy which has destroyed the country’s exports and widens the trade deficits all time high in 35 years.
In a statement issued, he stated that the PML-N government has failed to increase Pakistan’s exports and it has not developed a comprehensive plan to open direct channels between exporters and the trade bodies in US, EU, Middle East, Gulf States, Africa and Central Asia.
The government has not captured the neighboring markets of Afghanistan, Iran and India. The latest figures show that the bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan is reducing drastically, while it has not moved a single step forward with Iran-that is very much alarming for the economy, Senator Mandviwalla added.
He maintained that during the last three years, PMLN Government has continuously missed the exports; it remains on declining trend and now has reached on the brink of disaster, “All this is happening because of the absence of any trade policy; PMLN has announced a three years policy but not implemented it.”
Saleem Mandviwalla said that it is both depressing and worrisome that the current export patterns are running in the reverse and Government has set the target of enhancing exports to $35b in two years in the new trade policy which will never be achieved.
Senator Mandviwalla stated that “Government has no clue how to enhance exports; it has failed to bring a concrete and comprehensive trade policy in the last three years, which is its big failure It has done nothing for exports refunds which are pending after three years, it has not provided any incentive to exporters like other countries in these situation, how Pakistan can export increase, He asked.
He said that Government is comparing its exports with wrong countries to justify its failure and decline in export. An export to the countries, where there is an economic slowdown is comparatively better against those which have no global crisis. PMLN should focus more on Countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Africa, Brazil, Latin America, Australia- Worlds largest market to increase its Exports.
Pakistan’s depressing export performance has been a cause of concern for quite some time now “Undoubtedly, the continuous decline in exports is a big concern at the moment, — a situation that demands urgent steps from quarters concerned to put things in the right order, Mandviwalla added.
