July 10, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 9,1424

ISLAMABAD, July 9: Exports of manufactured and semi-manufactured items stood at $10,037 million during the financial year 2002-03, recording an increase of 20.69 per cent over the preceding year, according to Advance Release on External Trade Statistics by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Wednesday.

In spite of this impressive growth rate, their share in total exports ($11,030 million) declined by 1.16pc to 91pc of total exports ($11,030 million), as compared to 2001-02.

Thus manufactured and semi-manufactured exports continue in competition with primary commodities, whose imports received a stimulus from substantial improvement in the unit price of rice, raw cotton and wheat.

The stridency of exports coincides with the appreciation of rupee against dollar, thus disproving the classical theory that deprecation of exchange rate is a necessary condition of rise in exports. It is the quality of exports and, of course, the supply situation in the world commodities market, which too are potent factors in the performance of exports sector.

But the data also shows increasing dependence on textile manufactures whose preponderance in overall exports surged further to 65.04pc in 2002-03. An underlying reason is the installation of new textile machinery imported by the industrialists in preparation for the challenges they may face after withdrawal of quotas after 2004.

Textile manufactures exports during the period under review totalled $7174.36 million, up 24.16pc from previous year. Over 32pc of this was the contribution of semi-manufactures - cotton yarn and cotton cloth. Their combined exports stood at $2261.11 million in 2002-03 as against $2060.52 million for the previous year.

Disaggregated, these figures show that both cotton yarn ($930.13 million) and cotton cloth ($1330.98 million) fetched higher unit price, with the exports of the former in dollars moving up by 0.05pc against quantitative decline of 3.40pc, while proceeds from export of cotton cloth surged by 17.70pc in value as against 5.03pc rise in quantity.

Apart from cotton cloth, three other categories of textiles shot past the $1 billion barrier in 2002-03. On top is bedwear the exports of which totalled $1320.80 million, up 43.79pc from 2001-02. Quantitatively, its export grew by 33.07pc.

Knitwear with exports worth $1136.24 million comes second. Nevertheless, it is the only category which failed to obtain higher unit price in the export market. As against 41.40pc increase in quantity, its value in dollars rose only 34.32pc.

In the third place, readymade garments fetched $1094.46 million, 25.09pc up, despite 10.93pc quantitative fall.

Towels ($373.56 million) improved their export performance by 39.54pc in value and 28.81pc in quantity, tents, canvas & tarpaulin ($69.52 million) up by 39.98pc against 35.40pc increase in quantity, art. silk & synthetic textile ($561.71 million) with 17.19pc increase in quantity and 36.99pc in value.

OTHER MANUFACTURES: The exports of this high value-added category in 2002-03 stood at $1994.61 million, denoting an increase of 4.47pc over the previous year. Nevertheless, their share in total exports dropped by a sharp 3 percentage points to 18.08pc.

Main setback to this category of exports came from traditional sectors, e.g. carpets (-16.43pc), petroleum crude (-43.11pc), leather manufactures (-5.74pc) and surgical goods (-4.43pc).

But then other traditional sectors posted positive growth, e.g. sports goods with exports worth $315.67 million, up 3.68pc from previous year. Further, cutlery with exports worth $37.10 million registered an increase of 10.63pc.

Among the non-traditional categories, chemicals and pharmaceutical products added $255.147 million to the country’s foreign exchange earnings. This is 67pc more than previous year’s exports. Their share in Other Manufactures also climbed to 12.79pc from previous year’s 8pc.

Engineering goods exports moved up to $68.03 million, denoting an increase of 33.10pc over the previous year. Their share in Other Manufactures rose from 2.66pc to 3.41pc in 2002-03.

Other non-traditional items are onyx manufactured, gems, jewellry and furniture. Exports of onyx surged by 16.69pc to $11.71 million. The exports of gems ($1.978 million) increased by 31.87pc and furniture ($8.124 million) by 34.33pc. However, jewellry exports ($21.23 million) declined by 21.83pc.

PRIMARY COMMODITIES: The country exported 17,68,319 tons of rice for $546.14 million, accounting for over 55pc of exports of this category. Its value exceeded previous year’s proceeds by 21.84pc, although in quantity, its export went up by only 4.99pc.

The quantity of raw cotton exported during the period under review was 54,853 tons, up 56.91pc from previous year. In value, it fetched $48.71 million - 96.97pc more during previous year.

The country also exported 11,37,784 tons of wheat with generous subsidy by the government. This exceeded by over 77pc of the exports of wheat during previous year. In price, our wheat had an edge this time as the total proceeds surpassed those of previous year by 80.90pc.