May 28, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25,1424

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LAHORE, May 27: Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali has emphasized the need for developing a new national export strategy based on public-private sectors partnership.

He was speaking at a seminar on export-led growth strategy conducted by the Export Promotion Bureau at the Pakistan Administrative Staff College on Tuesday. He hoped that the deliberations of the seminar would help develop the national export strategy. “We have the right macro environment and we have to seize this opportunity,” he said. The recent reforms had resulted in substantial improvement in Pakistan’s economy, he added.

He said during the next financial year the country’s GDP was expected to rise to five per cent against three per cent being estimated globally.

These reforms had also resulted in significant growth rate of over 20 per cent in exports and for the first time in the country’s history the export earnings would exceed $10 billion. He said the export could double in the next four years by maintaining an annual exports growth rate of 20 per cent, which would help the government alleviate poverty and raise the living standards of the people.

“Pakistan had politically achieved its independence in 1947. Since then there had been many political upheavals. But now it is on the path to economic prosperity,” he said.

The prime minister said Pakistan was going to face many challenges and opportunities due to globalization and further ‘liberalization’ of international markets because of Doha Round negotiations of the WTO and quota-free environment for textile and clothing from 2005.

He said the elimination of barriers for industrial goods could result in welfare gains ranging from $250 billion to $620 billion annually. Out of this, $200 billion was expected to be given to the developing countries. Liberalization of the agriculture sector could bring in additional $30 billion for the developing countries. “Our efforts should be to get maximum share of this gain,” he added.

He said traditional trade promotion strategies would not be enough to get a substantial share of the estimated gains from liberalization. In the past, Pakistan had lagged due to political instability and radical changes in the nature of international competition during the past one decade. He said Pakistan’s export strategies had been inadequate to meet the challenge. “Now the country needs a scientific approach,” he said. Mr Jamali also said the government would make all out efforts to ensure that the momentum of reforms was maintained through further opening of economy and by investment in infrastructure. He added that efforts would be made to forge new trade alliances by forming free trade areas to secure new markets and raise our share of exports in traditional markets. “Currently, there are over 170 regional trading arrangements in the world, but we have not been able to align ourselves with any meaningful regional arrangement.”

He said the government’s priority would be to seek new preferential access for Pakistan’s exports, especially clothing in the EU’s market which Pakistan was able to get in 2002. It resulted in increase of exports this year by $400 million. If Pakistan could get preferential access for its agricultural commodities such as sugar, it could double its production, he said. He added that it would need a substantial increase in human resource to maintain a highly skilled and productive workforce.

The prime minister said Gwadar port was a major and important project which would provide a vital link between the East and the West. He appealed to the foreign investors to come to Pakistan and make investment, as things had considerably changed after the 9/11 incident. Now there was political stability in the country and ‘your investment will be safe and secure.’

Earlier, Federal Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar welcomed the prime minister. He said Pakistan had been following a sound economic policy for the past 15 years, and there had not been any major change.

He said Pakistan had been a member of the WTO since 1994. Some important decisions were expected to be taken at the next ministerial meeting of the WTO countries scheduled to be held in September next in Mexico, the minister said.