January 3, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 29, 1423

KARACHI, Jan 2: Geographical diversification in exports has resulted in growth of exports in 24 countries and registered an increase of $174 million during last two years.

The country’s exports have always remained vulnerable due to reliance on a limited number of markets. The situation could well be judged from the fact that 67 per cent of the total exports goes to only 10 countries and 81 per cent to 20 countries.

But the worst part of the entire scenario is that 25 per cent of the total exports goes to US alone while another 21 per cent goes to five European Union countries.

As a result of this, the export sector had always remained extremely vulnerable to the economic shocks in the North American and the EU markets.

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) during last two years endeavoured to correct the situation by taking various measures to diversify exports to non-traditional markets. The EPB initially selected 24 countries, having high prospects of export market.

In order to encourage exports to these markets the EPB allowed subsidy on participation in trade fairs in these countries and also arranged larger number of trade delegations. The bureau provided assistance to exporters to overcome non-tariff barriers in these markets.

The government has already allowed freight subsidy for encouraging exports of non-traditional products.

The EPB has put more efforts to promote geographical diversification in exports and managed to achieve some success in enhancing demand for country’s products to non-traditional markets.