PCMEA wants continuity in long-term export policy

LAHORE:The Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMEA) has welcomed the proposed roadmap of $100 billion exports under Vision Pakistan and called for continuity in such long-term export policies to ensure their success.

‘After final preparation, it should be declared a national policy and its draft should be protected so that any political situation and change of governments cannot affect it.’ These views were expressed in a joint media statement by the PCMEA Senior Vice Chairman Usman Ashraf, Carpet Training Institute (CTI) Chairperson Ijazur Rahman and senior members here on Sunday.

They were of the view that for the successful implementation of such policies, proper representation should be given to the stakeholders and whatever final policy is prepared, it should be presented to the stakeholders for consultation.

Focal persons should be appointed to remove the obstacles created by various departments so that there is no hurdle to achieving the export target. They added that the government should chalk out a programme to guide those who are interested in export sector.

All over the world, relief is given to exporters in various terms, so Pakistan should emulate it, especially looking at its competitor countries.

They suggested that single country exhibitions should be organised as much as possible and participation of manufacturers and exporters in global exhibitions should be ensured, besides providing financial support to exporters interested in participating in international exhibitions so that volume of export should be increased.

Exporters should be provided an effective platform at the government level for advertisement.Along with high-level government delegations visiting different countries, delegations should be dispatched in consultation with export sector organisations.

The leaders of the association said that foreign embassies have a key role in this whole phase, so the government should mobilise the commercial attachés and assign them special tasks regarding the increase in exports.

They said that the exporters also face difficulties in obtaining visas for different countries and for that, necessary steps should be taken and a monitoring system should also be brought to ensure the successful implementation of the policy.