KARACHI, June 13: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday said Pakistan could double its export earnings every three or four years if it was able to maintain the momentum of foreign trade, which translates into a 20 per cent increase every year.

He said this while speaking as the chief guest at a function held to mark the crossing of 10-billion-dollar mark in exports for the first time in Pakistan’s history, besides marking the achievement of the current year’s export target of $10.4 billion.

The president marked the occasion by pushing a button to load a container onto a vessel.

He said that by the end of the current fiscal year, the country’s exports would reach $11 billion.

“Such an achievement will be a short cut for poverty alleviation and improving the standard of living as well as the economic revival of the country ... I see a bright future. We have to put our acts together”, the president remarked.

The president stressed the need for making a textile-oriented growth in exports a part of the medium-term strategy instead of making it part of a long-term strategy.

Enunciating guidelines for the long-term strategy, he said for the exports to reach beyond $20 billion, major contribution would have to come from the engineering sector, including — chemicals, pharmaceutical and information technology.

He asked the minister for commerce and the chairman of Exports Promotion Bureau to devise export plans to enhance the country’s engineering products.

He said that exports should be a major consideration when formulating monetary and exchange rate policies.

Gen Musharraf directed the finance ministry to maintain vigilance, saying that any fiscal and credit policy should not create liquidity problems for exports.

Stressing the need to avoid red-tapism, he said that exporters should never be made to run around for duty drawbacks and rebate while tariff and taxation policies should ensure the domestic industry’s competitiveness.

Pledging to provide better facilities to the export sector, he said that he would be personally involved in this regard.

“We must set our targets high and move on a planned strategy”, he stated.

Gen. Musharraf urged the planners to set the long-term export target at $50 billion, while saying that the next years export target should not be less than $13 billion.

Stressing the need to exploit the potential in terms of manpower as well as natural and human resources, he said: “We can go a long way. The question is how.

How do we ensure that the achievements of these two years in exports is maintained and further consolidated”, Gen. Musharraf added.

He also called for stronger public-private partnership to achieve competitiveness in the global market.—APP