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PESHAWAR: The All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) president Manzoor Elahi has expressed concern over the government’s failure to resolve exporters’ problems and stressed the need for establishing a modern gemstone centre in Peshawar to boost exports.
Presenting a charter of demands to MPA Malik Wajidullah Khan in a meeting here on Wednesday, he said the region was full of natural resources, precious and semi-precious stones but the business community was not given the opportunities to improve exports.
He said exporters would construct building of the gemstone centre if the government allotted a piece of land for the purpose in the provincial capital. He said with the construction of the building the exports of precious stones, carpets and other items would reach to highest level, thus improving national economy.
The APCEA chief said the export of gemstone could be increased manifold if the problems related to ministry of commerce, FBR, railways and customs were resolved. He lamented that owing to lack of cargo wagons with Pakistan Railways the Peshawar-based business community had to shift their consignments to Lahore for onward forwarding to Karachi for exporting them abroad. The irregular transportation, he said was causing wastage of time and quality of packing.
The hurdles in exports of precious stones, he said should be removed to attract foreign investors to earn foreign exchange for the country. He informed the MPA that they had invested a considerable amount in the gemstone sector and had been playing effective role to get foreign exchange for last 30 years through gemstone exports without any government help. He said gemstone worth $20 million was exported during financial year 2017-18.
MPA Wajidullah Khan, who is also the focal person to the chief minister, said he would apprise the chief minister about the issues of exporters. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan also wanted to facilitate the exporters.
Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2018
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