RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Commerce and Textile Pervaiz Malik has expressed satisfaction over the pace of growth in exports, saying that the government will take all necessary measures for the facilitation of exporters and resolve all their problems in consultation with them.

While presiding over an internal meeting on current trade statistics, he said that the initiatives started by the government to provide duty drawback as well as exchange rate adjustments have contributed positively to the growth.

“Improved market access, especially in the European market owing to the successful review of GSP Plus facility, also played an important role,” he added.

The highest year-on-year growth in a month was achieved in March 2018, when the exports for the month reached $2.230 billion, higher by 24 per cent when compared with March 2017 and 17 per cent when compared with February 2018. On the other hand, imports growth remained subdued at only 5 per cent as compared to March 2017, which has also been one of the lowest growths in imports in the past many months.

The commerce minister hoped that that the increase in exports will continue in future as the government is mulling to give more and more incentives to the exporters on one hand and also working on exploring new markets for diversification in foreign trade on the other.

“We are looking forward to start PTA dialogue leading to FTA with countries including Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya and the Philippines,” the commerce minister added.