ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday directed the authorities concerned to take steps to exploit full potential of exports diversification in salt and pharmaceutical sectors.

Chairing a meeting of the National Export Development Board, the prime minister said the government was focused on creating business-friendly environment in the country for strengthening economy and increasing employment opportunities.

The prime minister emphasised that business community should adopt modern technologies to achieve maximum value addition.

Solar salt project aims to boost exports by $400m in 2023

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtyar, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood, Special Assistant to PM (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, SAPM on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill, CEO Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Asim Rauf, representatives of pharmaceutical and salt sectors and senior officials.

PM Khan was briefed on the potential of diversification of exports, especially in salt and pharmaceutical sectors. He was briefed that Pakistan was blessed with all types of salt available in the world including rock salt, sea salt and lake salt.

With a reserve size of 6.2 billion tonnes, Khewra Salt Mine is the second largest salt range in the world. Pakistan has also sea salt reserves along 1,050 kilometre long coastline.

Almost 60 per cent of total 350 million tonnes global salt consumption is made by the chemical industry.

Pakistan’s current annual salt production is 4m tonnes, whereas just 0.3m tonnes are being exported each year.

The government of Balochistan and Hub Salt have initiated a new Solar Salt project to tap Pakistan’s huge potential in salt export. This new Solar Salt Project will be the world’s largest salt works facility and will boost the salt exports by $400m in 2023 and will continue to grow by $200m per annum in subsequent years.

Moreover, it was told that currently Pakistan’s pharmaceutical exports are worth $275m with a growth potential of $74.3bn. This growth potential can be materialised by investing in the machinery and equipment, streamlining the registration process for Pakistani medicines, entering into joint ventures with reputed multinational companies and the appointment of sales and marketing teams in international markets for brand building.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2021