The world will not wait for Pakistan: KATI chief

Delay in announcing trade policy will leave country nowhere, says Saeed

KARACHI: Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati) President Zahid Saeed criticised the delay in the announcement of the trade policy framework and exporters’ package, saying that the uncertainty is creating problems for the country’s industry and the export sector.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised to announce the Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) package within days when a Kati delegation met him on September 10, but our government is unable to understand the urgency,” Saeed added.



“Delays in taking decisions often cost the people and the economy heavily,” he was quoted as saying in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Comparing the country’s exports of $24 billion to Bangladesh’s $31 billion and Vietnam’s $97 billion, he said the world will not wait for Pakistan to announce its trade policy.

“The top export category for both these economies is textiles. The world will not wait for us to announce the STPF. We are working in a highly competitive international environment and our peers are occupying the available space in international trade each passing day, leaving little place for Pakistani companies.”



Saeed lamented that the industrial sector was facing multiple issues.

“Any proposed policy or package should give special treatment to sectors that provide employment to a large number of people,” he said.

Talking about Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan’s recent visit to Kati, he said that the association had proposed some ideas to the government in an attempt to resolve the issues faced by different industrial estates in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2015.

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