SIALKOT, May 16 The Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association (SIMA) has urged the government to announce six per cent of the research and development fund for the surgical industry to enable it to grow in this WTO regime.

It said the required money would help the industry to increase its annual exports to the tune of $500 from the existing $250 million. It said that currently the surgical industry was exporting 99 per cent of its products from Sialkot.

SIMA Chairman Zubair Chaudhry said the government was collecting nine per cent mark up on refinance from the surgical industry and urged the government to exempt the surgical industry from this mark up for the next three years.

Chaudhry urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman to announce the duty drawback rates for the surgical industry equal to the cutlery industry. He said the government must ensure uninterrupted supply of 250 megawatt to the surgical industry to enable it to work with its full capacity.

He asked the government to provide Export Processing Unit incentives to the surgical industry, which was meeting 99 per cent of the world needs. He said surgical exporters and manufacturers rejected the value added tax because this would open new vistas of corruption. He said continuous and productive liaison between the exporters' bodies and the trade promotion organisations like the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan was a must for settlement of issues hampering exports and growth.

He said Sialkot's surgical industry was more than 100 years old and SIMA had been serving surgical instrument manufacturers and exporters since 1958. He said SIMA had more than 2,600 registered members.

The industry is providing employment to around 150,000 persons directly and indirectly. It had clientele in the US, Germany, UK, France, Japan, Italy and UEA. Considering the world market of $30 billion of healthcare instruments, there was a huge potential for growth for Pakistan's surgical industry, he added.