While taking notice of a declining trend in Pakistan’s exports, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has constituted an export enhancement committee for evolving a strategy for its boosting.
The six members export enhancement committee will be headed by Federal Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar and it will give the government recommendations on how to boost it, a source told ProPakistani.
The export enhancement committee consists of the Governor of State Bank, Secretary of Finance, Secretary of Commerce, Chairman Nishat Chunian Shehzad Saleem, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Interloop, Mossadeq Zulqarnain, the source said.
The committee has been tasked to give recommendations for increasing the exports within 14 days.
As per the official data, Pakistan’s exports have declined by 5.8 percent during the first six months of the current fiscal year 2022-23. In December, the country’s exports recorded a decline of 16.64 percent on an annual basis.
On a month-on-month basis, the exports dropped by 3.64 percent to $2.3 billion from $2.39 billion in the previous month of November 2022. The country’s exports declined to $14.25 billion during the first half of the ongoing fiscal year as compared to $15.13 billion in exports during the corresponding months of the previous fiscal year.
The country’s textile exports are expected to decline below $1 billion per month from January 2023 due to issues including supply chain disruptions, liquidity blockades, and rising energy expenses. According to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), the textile sector is now operating at a capacity utilization of less than 50 percent across the country.
A substantial number of jobs have already been lost and many more are to follow if remedial measures are not urgently undertaken.