THE government has not been able to explore new markets, specially in western Europe and Africa to increase exports, with the result there is no possibility of achieving even $9 billion total exports, what to talk of meeting the target of billion, set for the year 2001-2002.

The much-talked about fixing responsibility on Pakistani envoys and commercial attaches abroad for failure in increasing exports had not been seen during the last three years. This issue has always been highlighted on every forum but perhaps without any seriousness on the part of the higher authorities.

Minister for Commerce, Industries and Production Razak Dawood says that one billion dollar additional exports will be achieved during the current financial year due to finding out new markets. But he has not specifically informed about any particular country that will help to have additional exports. Nonetheless, he conceded, this additional one billion dollar exports included in the total $9 billion.

According to final estimates, about $1.5 billion exports had been lost due to September 11 events and if this aspect is kept in mind then our exports will eventually be around $7.5 billion. And this also included $400 million additional market access provided by the European Union and $142 million by the United States.

Now the government is expecting some additional market access for Pakistani products in Japan where President General Pervez Musharraf, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and Commerce inister Razak Dawood are expected to visit on 11 of March.

There are two major reasons for continuous failure in increasing exports. In the first place there is no industrial surplus which could be exported. Secondly there is no foreign market which had lately been explored by the government or exporters of the country. Generally, exporters still prefer exporting cotton-based products and a couple of other items like carpets, sports goods, surgical instruments and leather. There has been no value addition in textiles and leather and that is why the country like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have a larger share of the market in these two products.

There had been a lot of emphasis on the diversification of products but the fact remains that no new products has been introduced for exports. Fan industry of the country has not been able to achieve substantial orders from abroad.

The role of the Export Promotion Bureau(EPB) has always been criticised for failure to increase exports. The moment the government in Islamabad changes it brings people of its own choice in the EPB and whatever little was done in the past is undone by the new people in the bureau. One of the reasons for low exports is the quality of the Pakistani products on which successive governments only paid lips service. There are no adequate training institutions for ensuring quality control and diversification of the products and since there is a very tough competition, there are no increased orders for Pakistani goods. When dollar was on the higher side viz a viz Pak Rupee, it inhibited increased exports. Now when the Rupee is strong against the dollar, it is also not helping.

Generally, people sitting in the ministries of finance and commerce do admit that exports could not be increased due to one reason or the other and that $10 billion exports target has now become a psychological bearer for the country. This 10 billion target is being fixed for the last many years but has never been achieved.

But now there seems to be an opportunity to do some thing in the wake of the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Chairman of Afghan Interim government Hamid Karzai and his Finance Minister Hidayat Amin Arsla when visited Pakistan recently were considerate to say that they would prefer Pakistani goods. However, they did not mince words to say that Pakistan’s private sector will have to compete to get export orders and that goods and services must match with the international standards. On the other hand, India is not in a mood to be left behind and is using all its influence in the Northern Alliance people to have more exports compared to Pakistan. Mr. Karzai was in New Delhi last week along with 15 ministers and a big delegation of the Afghan businessmen. While he appealed to the Indian government to provide all necessary help to rebuild Afghanistan, he assured that his country would very much like to have goods and services from India on the basis of competition.

In Pakistan, the private sector people held a separate session with Mr. Arsla and assured him of all quality goods and services. Later the government officials interacted with the business leaders and reportedly discussed with them how to get what was termed “maximum share” from the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. This time around the situation is different as every thing is being done by the Americans themselves in Afghanistan. During the Jihad against the former Soviet Union, the then US government had accepted that every thing will be channelised through the then Zia government.

Now the question is whether Pakistan has the capacity and the will o compete in Afghanistan. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz maintains that all quotas, permits and restrictions have been removed to provide level-playing field for the private sector to have more exports in Afghanistan. For this purpose, he also said that the government was considering to open another route - Miran Shah - other than Chaman and Turkum. But the question is whether it will help. According to concerned officials, they could only remove restrictions and provide all necessary incentives and the rest will depend on the private sector. Some people in the private sector are trying to have joint ventures with their Turkish and Iranian counterparts to take part in the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. However, the government will have to play an very active role to ensure that rules of the game are observed by the private sector and nobody should dare export inferior quality goods to Afghanistan.