KARACHI, July 12: The Federal Secretary of Commerce, Tasneem Noorani said on Tuesday trade offices abroad would be re-organized and the ministry had selected people from multinationals.
He also said that the ambassadors would be empowered to recruit local people as well after administrating a test and appoint them as trade officers in the respective countries.
Addressing the members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Karachi he said that Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Status, which would be operative from January 1, 2006, was very significant for textile exports as the arch competitors India had half status and China was out of it.
He said that Pakistan should take benefit of this situation by making its place in the European Union markets.
Responding to a question, he said only Rs700 million could be collected under the head of Export Development Fund. He said the ministry of commerce is opposing the idea to use the fund for construction of roads.
Noorani said that the He was of the view that such a practice would help boost the export and trade activities as they, representing the private sector, were expected to be more effective.
He said the government was ready to extend every possible support to the businessmen to increase the trade activities. He said that the export trend in the world had changed.
He called upon the Chambers to focus on research and development for the benefit of their members for evolving effective and scientific strategies to boost trade and exports. He said that the export planning should be future-oriented.
He said that the commerce ministry had constituted a team that would strike down bogus and below the mark bodies. He said there were complaints about the bogus and below the mark chambers in some places in Punjab that should be made to conform to the DTO rules.
About the issue of sealing of Compact disc manufacturing factories, the commerce secretary said that Pakistan was the biggest exporter of pirated CDs. It is the issue of intellectual property rights and the countries, which have complaints about the piracy, also monitor the government actions to check such activities. He said that 90 per cent of Indian films are copied on the CDs immediately after their release in India and exported to other countries.
He said around 10 to 12 factories with CD manufacturing and copying facilities were raided and sealed after finding due evidence about their involvement in piracy.
The president of the Chamber, Khalid Firoz in his address of welcome highlighted the need of consistency in policies to ensure future planning for export related productions and signing of supplying contracts.—APP
