MULTAN City News

MCCI chief concerned at Vietnam-EU FTA

From Our Correspondent

MULTAN: The government should take preventive measures as the European Union and Vietnam have signed a free trade agreement while the latter’s emerging economy can capture Pakistan export market, which has already shrunk due to high energy cost and discriminating import duties on raw material.

Talking to journalists here on Saturday, Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Fareed Mughees Sheikh said that the agreement was the first of its kind that the EU had concluded with a developing country, which would definitely benefit from its FTA on very nominal duties. Fareed Sheikh feared that Vietnam would capture Pakistan textile value-added export market despite having status of GSP Plus because Pakistan was not availing this facility due to very limited product lines mainly due to strict import policy of the government. The exports of textile and clothing had declined sharply during the last six months, he informed. He said that Vietnam had achieved the milestone amid huge foreign direct investment due to attractive policies, which would surpass even the Bangladesh textile export of $27 billion, because the country had fixed the target of $30 billion textile export for the current fiscal year. He asked the government to address the issues of value-added textile sector as the continued drop in exports may widen further due to Vietnam-EU FTA, massive decline in cotton production and high import duty on yarn. He urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene into the situation personally and direct the policy makers to work for reduction in all input costs otherwise the export-oriented industries would not only close down their operations but millions of workers would also lose their jobs. He said that the value-added textile sector was burdened with multiple taxes with high cost of inputs, tariffs of gas, electricity, raw material and was further harassed due to short supply of all these most essential utilities, he added. The country was facing almost 35 per cent shortfall in cotton production as cotton bales arrival had registered 9 million bales against the set target of 14 million bales, he continued. Despite huge shortfall of cotton, 10pc regulatory duty on cotton yarn import from India was not understandable, which would not only encourage cartelization but also squeeze raw material availability in the country.

CRACKDOWN ON CRIMINALS ORDERED: CPO Azhar Akram has ordered a crackdown on all anti-social elements especially against street crimes in the city.

According to the CPO Office, the police had been ordered a ruthless crackdown on robbers involved in street crimes and snatching bikes. The CPO also ordered strict action against proclaimed offenders. The CPO directed all the SPs for providing foolproof security in all markets and filling stations and taking action against traders under the Shop Security Ordinance for adopting poor security measures. The CPO also issued last warnings to the Gulgasht and BZU SHOs for improving performance otherwise stern action would be taken against them.