‘End public-private sector mistrust to increase exports’

LAHORE
THERE is a need to end the mistrust between public and private sectors to increase the country exports while exports should be tax-free by amending the Constitution and food and meat sector can earn billions of dollars foreign exchange through exports.
These views were expressed by the experts in Jang Economic Session on ‘How public and private sectors can increase exports of country’, here, Tuesday.
The panellists were Dr Qais Aslam, Waheed Bhatti, Shahid Sheikh, Abdul Basit, Abad-ur-Rehman and Abuzar Shad while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.
Dr Qais Aslam said every sector of Pakistan had capacity to increase exports but the government should give incentives to increase exports. He said incompetent commercial attachés should be removed while production should be made in accordance with international requirements. He said value addition could increase exports and GDP while huge exports in surgical, sports goods, dry fruit, fresh vegetables and fruits possible by establishing special safety zones for exports.
Waheed Bhatti said the government initiatives were required to increase exports while gems sector had huge potential and by promoting it country could create its place in the international market. He said livestock and dairy sector could also earn huge foreign exchange. He called for focusing on agriculture sector. He said Trade Development Authority of Pakistan with limited resources was organising trade shows abroad to increase exports. Shahid Sheikh said lack of public-private partnership was cause of ignoring the potential of Pakistan while ending the mistrust between the two sectors could increase exports. He said geographical location of Pakistan was big gift of nature which needed to be utilised with better human resource and team work.
He said image of present government was pro-business but non-establishment of business council was exposing the priorities of the government.
He said exports could not be increased until the government resolved business community issues. He called for evolving of business council and involvement of all stakeholders in policy-making.
Abdul Basit said that at global level, governments provided incentives to increase exports while in Pakistan, only textile sector was blue-eyed. He said food sector exports increased by improving processing and packaging and became important supplier of legal (Halal) food.
He said poultry sector was growing 10 percent annually, which could increase exports manifolds even more than textile sector if facilitated.
Abad-ur-Rehman said future of Pakistan linked with agriculture sector while it could become important food exporting sector. He said the agriculture sector was self-sufficient in wheat, cotton, rice and other basic crop but unable to exports due to negligence of government.
Abuzar Shad said no public sector enterprise system was successful in Pakistan while exports could not be increased with incompetent attachés. He called for revisiting the policies to increase business in open markets.