28 March 2004	Sunday	06 Safar 1425

KARACHI, March 27: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Saturday that the next budget would be investment and growth-oriented and would ensure continuity of economic policies.

Speaking as a chief guest at the sixth Export Excellence Awards distribution ceremony of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea), the minister said that last four years' economic achievements would be consolidated in the next budget.

Mr Aziz said that Pakistan would achieve a six per cent GDP growth this year against the target of 5.3 per cent and hoped that next year even higher growth would be recorded.

He said that the large-scale manufacturing during last seven months of the current fiscal year grew by over 15 per cent and revenue collection was also higher by 15 per cent.

As a result of macroeconomic stability, he said, there was all round growth as property prices had gone up. Due to higher demand, the minister maintained, cement production had moved up to 90 per cent from 60 per cent last year.

He further said that the government was worried if the cement demand grew further it would create problems, but it was equally encouraging that new investment and expansion was going on in this sector.

Mr Aziz stressed upon the value-added sector not to feel bad and scared of rise in raw materials such as yarn and fabrics as this happened in any economic and business activity. He urged upon them to stay steadfast and face the emerging challenges of the quota-free regime beginning from 2005.

He said that readymade garments and other value-added sectors were the real hope for enhancing exports as well as creating a lot many job opportunities as big textile units nowadays provided little jobs.

The finance minister said that garment manufacturers had to put in their skills and creativity and face marketing and competition in the world market.

He appreciated Mahmood Bhatti, a designer from Paris, and said the designer went to France with empty hands but made his way up through his efforts and hard work and today he had been awarded with Sitara-e-Imtiaz.

Mr Aziz said that the country for a long time could not break the psychological barrier of $8 billion in exports but last year it managed to export goods worth $11 billion. He expressed the hope that this year exports would cross $12 billion mark.

However, the finance minister cautioned that Pakistan's performance in exports was restricted to few countries and commodities and said that there was an urgent need to diversify them and look of new markets. "Exports could be increased by taking aggressive marketing and improving efficiency to meet the quota-free regime," he added.

Unlike in the past, Mr Aziz said today the exchange rate was stable, the interest rates were also low and the country had huge reserves with the low inflation rate. All these factors, he said, gave ample opportunity to the exporters to meet the challenges.

He said Pakistan was the 9th largest textile exporting country and 20th in apparel exports, "but all we need is to improve our performance and come among first ten ranking countries in exports of textiles and apparels."

In reply to some issues raised by Prgmea chairman Tahir Aziz, the minister said: "DTRE rules are to help you to stay away from tax collectors and avoid long delays but we would still like to listen to exporters and accommodate their suggestion."

Regarding SRO 410, Mr Aziz said this had developed bad habits for exporters who heavily depended on rebates and duty drawback, but time have come they should realized that the world had changed into a global village.

Shaukat Aziz rejected the Prgmea chairman's appeal to give some sort of subsidy or cushion to the value-added textile sector to meet the high prices of yarn and fabrics. He said if the government came up with such idea the importing countries would raise objection and even impose punitive duties which would be counter-productive for the industry.