July 11, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1424

ISLAMABAD, July 10: Federal Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan on Thursday assured incentives in trade policy for value-added goods exporters.

The minister made this announcement during a meeting with the representatives of business community. The meeting was attended by heads of various chambers of commerce and industries, chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), vice chairman (EPB), secretary and senior officials of the commerce ministry.

Mr. Khan urged the private sector to invest more in the value added sector. The meeting reviewed various aspects of forthcoming trade policy in the context of promoting exports.

The minister said the engineering sector had an important role to play in boosting exports of value-added goods for which, he added, technical know-how and raw material was available.

The minister further said the private sector should also take part in research and development.

He emphasized that private sector should also spend a percentage of their production cost on research and development, which was essential for development of engineering sector.

The minister said that SME sector and vendor industries also needed attention for which government has evolved various schemes.

The new trade policy would encourage the SME sector as development of this sector was vital for development of industrial and manufacturing sector besides creating jobs and alleviating the poverty, he said.

Regarding the WTO regime, he said a programme is needed for creating awareness among SMEs.

On the occasion, the representatives of various trade bodies submitted various suggestions for development of industries and exports.