ISLAMABAD – Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Industry and Investment,Abdul Razak Dawood here on Wednesday said that during recently concludedvisit of Prime Minister, China has agreed to increase its import fromPakistan by $1 billion immediately while the imports from Pakistan wouldfurther be increased by $1 billion next year.
This will help Pakistan to boost its exports to China from existing levelof $1.2 billion to $2.2 billion by end of current year and to $3.2 billionby end of next year, he said while addressing a press briefing along withMinister for Planning, Development and Reform Khusro Bakhtiar.
“We wanted China to give Pakistan market access and increase tariff lineswith similar conditions that it had offered to Bangladesh and membercountries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),” he saidadding that keeping in view the lengthy process of amending the prioritylist tariff lines between the two countries, the Chinese Premier Li hadassured Pakistani side to enhance its imports from Pakistan immediately.
The Adviser said that media was misquoting Finance Minister Asad Umar bysaying that the country’s exports would be doubled within the current year.“In fact, the finance minister had said that Pakistan’s export to Chinawould be doubled by end of current year.”
Dawood said that now the challenge lies on Pakistani government as well asthe private sector to identify the potential areas for enhancing exports toChina.
“Now we will have to sit down together to enhance exports in potentialareas such as textile, leather, agriculture, surgical goods, and lightengineering.”
The Adviser said unless the export culture does not flourish in thecountry, the current account gap issue could not be addressed on permanentbasis. “We can not pay debt by borrowing more.”
The government, he said was determined to facilitate the local industry toenhance exports and to provide proper facilitation at the ports adding thatbefore this the adequate facilities for the exporters were missing at ports.
The Adviser said that the export culture in the country was not developedyet as there were no proper facility and mechanism operating at the localports to facilitate the exporters.
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Abdul Razak Dawood underlined the need to develop and promote localindustrial sectors on modern lines to produce competitive products ascompared to the international markets.
Minister for Planning Khusro Bakhtiar said during the recent visit of PrimeMinister to China, the two sides signed agreements for cooperation invarious sectors including agriculture and elimination of poverty from thecountry.
He said the scope of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had also beenenhanced and development of CPEC had now entered into the second phase thatis industrial cooperation.
He informed that next month, he was visiting China to attend the annualJoint Coordination Committee on CPEC in Beijing where further majorbreakthrough was expected during the meetings.
Bakhtiar said the previous governments had not paid attention on thedevelopment of Gwadar port and city, but this government was giving toppriority on the development of Gwadar port and city.
He said every year, Pakistan imports crude petroleum oil worth of $16billion and if an oil refinery is established in Gwadar, Pakistan would beable to save its import bill worth over $7 billion.
