March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

KARACHI, March 10: The adviser to the prime minister on finance and economic affairs Shaukat Aziz has advised the businessmen to vigorously strive for increasing their share in export market to face the challenges of globalization.

“Globalization is a reality and the WTO regime is staring at us, which could be an opportunity as well as a challenge if proper preparation and planning was not made,” asserted the adviser to the prime minister.

These were the wake-up calls given by Shaukat Aziz at the first export award 2002, ceremony of Pakistan Cloth Merchants Association (PCMA) on Saturday evening.

Speaking as a chief guest, he said, “we are of a firm belief that greater market access is now more important than loans and grants and all out efforts should be made to capture maximum markets ahead of year 2005.”

Under the given circumstance, he said, market access was of paramount importance for them, as it generated employment and enhanced exports and foreign exchange earning.

The ceremony, which lasted till late Saturday evening, was well attended by the members of PCMA and members of other export bodies.

The adviser said that only those would manage to survive in free world market, which would ensure quality, competitive price and prompt deliveries of goods.

Shaukat Aziz sounded quite optimistic when he said that textile industry, during last three years, invested up to $1.5 billion in BMR as well as expansion.

He said one could not deny that textile was the backbone of the economy and to some greater extent the industry had prepared itself to face the challenges of WTO regime in 2005.

Responding to some of the issues raised by the chairman PCMA Ahmed Chinoy, he assured that all matters relating to sales tax would be resolved at the earliest and also suggested that the committee be constituted to frame such problems and give its report within four weeks.

He also briefly recalled some of the achievements made by the previous government and said now the interest rate had been reduced, fiscal deficit and inflation controlled.

The adviser said that the government was keen to see growth through exports.

As a result of consistency in economic policies, he said “now we have reserves of over $10 billion, highest in the history of the nation.”

Three years back, he said, it was generally said that the rupee would go up to Rs100 against dollar and in case it had gone there would have been hyper inflation in the country.

He also appreciated the performance of the Customs and said in coming months the release time for containers would come down to 24 hours where as in Singapore it was 36 hours.