‘Pakistan should focus on regional trade’

Islamabad will eventually lose exports to recession-hit West, say experts.

FAISALABAD: Pakistan will have to make a paradigm shift in its external trade and concentrate on regional countries if it is to survive the international economic deprivation and slide down in western world, said Mian Zahid Aslam, president of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In a statement he said that the days of colonial and international trade are going through massive changes and both our traditional export destinations (US and Europe) are plunging into economic crisis day by day. Substantiating his argument, Aslam said the eurozone is already going through economic recession as Spain, Greece and other allied countries are confronted with monetary and economic slowdown. Similarly in the US, twenty states have moved for economic liberation from the central government and the crisis of unemployment and business slump was gaining momentum. More than 1,000 banks in the US have closed down due to bankruptcy.

Under the circumstances Pakistan’s exports to both these destinations have decreased and Pakistani exporters are finding it hard to maintain their presence in these two major markets. Experts are saying that Pakistani exports to these two destinations will gradually die. Thus, business and exporters will have to look east instead of concentrating on western countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2012.