Dawood hopes country’s exports to reach $50 billion in FY 2023

Adviser for Commerce and Investment Razzaq Dawood on Sunday voiced hope that the country’s exports would reach $50 billion owing to the policy of trade diversification in potential trade sectors by the last fiscal year of the current government – 2023.

A combination of export diversification, non-traditional sectors and increasing exports to new markets, including the African market, would not only enhance the volume of the country’s exports but would also help achieve the export target, the adviser told APP.

‘Make in Pakistan’ is the government’s top priority trade policy, which aimed to introduce Pakistan’s traditional and non-traditional export sectors and local products in the international trade market.

The adviser said the country would export consumer durables such as mobile phones and motorcycles within the same trade policy, adding that the export of these two products to the global market would usher in an era of engineering products exports.

Dawood said that currently, the share of engineering goods exports in the global trade market was 51 per cent and the country now aimed at making a name for itself in non-traditional sectors, including engineering and pharmaceuticals.

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He said that recently a Karachi-based electrical and electronics goods company ‘INOVI Telecom’ had just exported the first consignment of 5,500 “Made in Pakistan” 4G mobile phones to the Middle East.

The advisor said that this would be the beginning of an era of high value-added exports from Pakistan, marking the beginning of product diversification from our traditional to non-traditional sectors.

“I urge other mobile manufacturers in Pakistan to emulate this example and export their products,” he said.

The adviser said that in the recent past, when the US Secretary of States for Commerce visited Pakistan, he had identified in his trade facilitation scheme Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) a number of traditional trade products in which Pakistan had not yet shipped goods to the US trade market.

He added Washington’s GSP program provides nonreciprocal, duty-free tariff treatment to certain products imported to the United States from designated Beneficiary Developing Countries (BDCs).

Most of these items came from Pakistan’s traditional commercial products, including textiles, which were now being worked on diligently.

“Geographical trade diversification and search for new markets will further increase our exports,” he said.

And in this regard, the government wanted to increase exports to Europe and the United States by making its trade goods globally competitive, he added.

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Replying to a question, he said Pakistan would start exporting up to 10,000 motorcycles which would be increased up to export of 30,000,000 motorcycles annually in the coming years.

He said that Japanese company ‘Honda’ has decided to set up its own manufacturing plant in Pakistan, which will make Pakistan a hub of motorcycle manufacturing.

They will start exporting motorcycles worth $30 million from Pakistan in the coming years.

Razzaq Dawood said that “we have decided to move towards import substitution which will increase our exports and create more industries in the country".

Replying to another question, he said that Pakistan’s exports touched the mark of over $25 billion over the past fiscal year 2020-21, and now the government has set an export goal of $38.7 to 40 billion for the current FY 2021-22.

He said the export goal for the previous year was $ 25.3 billion for items and $6 billion for the services sector.

He said that the country’s Information Technology (IT) exports had grown at 47 per cent, which indicates that IT exports crossed the mark of $ 2 billion.