PHOTO: EXPRESS
“The support industry will help the export-oriented industries to cut their costs thereby reducing the import bill of the country,” said Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCI) President Majid Raza Bhutta, while talking with a group of journalists.
‘Sialkot needs to become an SEZ’
He further said that this will make ‘made in Pakistan’ products more acceptable in cost-competitive global markets, hence increasing the export revenues of the country.
Currently, the export sector of Pakistan relies heavily on import of raw materials especially from China for further value-addition and re-exports. This practice adds to the cost of doing business and is a major contributor towards increasing import bill.
Bhutta said that Pakistan has seen many industrial surges where new industries were established yet no work has ever been done to invest in support industry.
Despite all the recommendations of Sialkot’s business community, to protect and further enhance the diversification of product lines within the five key export industries the city is famous for, the stakeholders feel a sense of negligence from current as well as previous governments in acceptance of such demands.
Economic zone demanded in southern Punjab
According to Bhutta, more than 99% of the city’s business is export-oriented and regardless of overall decline exports trend, Sialkot has managed to grip its exports share, which is around $2 billion. “We claim that in Pakistan there is no other city manufacturing export-oriented value-added products through Small and Medium Enterprises, we just need friendly policies not incentives from the government to further boost the export revenues,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2017.
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