Dastgir urges accepting new challenges

Commerce minister advises businessmen to focus on regional trade.

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir has said the government cannot achieve 7% or above economic growth, unless the business community accepts new challenges.

He said products needed to be marketed to existing and new markets, stressing that businesses needed to prepare themselves for regional trade.

“Let me remind you all, if you want fast economic growth then you should also prepare yourself for the risks because these two go hand in hand,” Dastgir said while speaking at the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) — one of the biggest industrial zones in Karachi.

“China, Malaysia and now India are all growing economically by fortifying regional trade. Pakistan cannot overlook this reality anymore.”

Despite political standoffs, China’s bilateral trade with Taiwan is $200 billion while its trade with India is over $70 billion. India, which already has a trade balance in favour of China, has expressed interest in further expanding its trade with the neighbouring country.

China became India’s largest trading partner in 2011 when their bilateral trade reached $74 billion.

Dastgir said that the government wants to increase trade with neighbouring countries. “For this purpose, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is soon going to Iran.”

Urging businessmen to adopt a more optimistic approach, Dastgir firmly said that his ministry will support progressive minds in the bureaucracy because the country needs to access new markets of South America, South East Asia and Far East to increase its exports.

“We are going to pick only progressive-minded officers for the posts of commercial counsellors at the Pakistani embassies abroad so that they can effectively market Pakistani products in traditional as well as new markets,” he said.

Dastgir recognises that there are a number of commercial counsellors working in different countries who have helped Pakistan in increasing exports to their relevant countries. “However, the government will appoint new counsellors only on merit next year in 2015.”

Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Chief Executive SM Muneer and other top officers were also present at the meeting.

Muneer said that his organisation was making efforts to invite only genuine businessmen to attend trade shows.

“From now on, we will ensure that only genuine foreign importers come to Pakistan to attend TDAP funded trade shows in the country,” he vowed.

In recent years, TDAP has been attracting criticism on inviting irrelevant importers to trade shows in Pakistan instead of genuine ones.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2014.

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