(February 12, 2020)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday welcomed the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2020-25 aimed at bolstering IT and engineering exports.
The private sector should be taken on board for input so that this policy succeeds which will reduce dependence on textile exports, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the new policy should not be left at the mercy of bureaucracy otherwise, it will remain unfruitful like other export promotion policies announced in the past.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the country needs effective and implementable policies which are not confined to public relations exercise and clapping by the business community.
The former minister noted that if the policy was designed according to the ground realities it will have different fate from the trade, industrial and agricultural policies. He recalled that few years back policy was announced to boost exports to 35 billion dollars but later the government termed in impractical.
The competing nations like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand etc. don’t waste time in tall claims and flowery speeches which have increased their exports but situation at home if otherwise, he said.
The veteran business leader said that destruction of cotton crop has put an additional burden of five billion dollars on the textile industry which is to increase the cost of doing business and reduce exports.
He said that policymakers seem very interested in signing trade deals with other countries while production continues to fall at home which will leave such trade deals useless.
Weak agriculture and industrial policies and tax measures will make success of Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2020-25 a bit difficult, he said.
