• Free Trade Agreement with Gulf states in final stages, meeting told
• Seeks strategy to check performance of trade officers posted abroad

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked the commerce ministry to constitute a ministerial committee and come up with a comprehensive proposal to make the country’s exports more competitive besides formulating a trade policy that facilitates business.

While chairing a review meeting on trade-related matters, the premier asked Commerce Minister Jam Kamal and his ministry’s bureaucrats to make a comprehensive presentation next time, but with brevity. The premier asked the commerce ministry to consult relevant ministries before making their presentation.

He said that measures should be taken to boost exports of non-traditional items. He emphasised developing a trade policy that facilitates business. The premier said consultation should be held with the private sector to formulate policies regarding ease of trade and business.

PM Shehbaz noted that the role of the private sector and industry is very important in the country’s development. He directed ensuring timely payment of duty drawbacks to exporters, which had been stuck for the past few years. He insisted that deletion policy should be implemented for the development of the country’s auto sector.

The premier also directed preparing a comprehensive strategy to evaluate the performance of trade and investment officers posted in Pakistani embassies abroad. He said he would review the export sector twice a month.

The meeting was informed that talks on Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and Gulf countries are in their final stages, while corridor trade agreements with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been activated with positive results.

Stakeholders are being consulted on Preferential Trade Agreements with Azer­­­­baijan and Afghan­istan.

It was informed that both Iran and Russia had expressed their consent in principle for the operationalisation of barter trade. It was informed that 450 business-to-business meetings were held at the recent Pak-Saudi Business Conference in Islamabad.

The meeting was informed that work on the gem export framework is in its final stages.

Meeting on investment

While reviewing the performance of the Board of Investment (BoI), the PM tasked the board with creating more facilities for investment and business start-ups in the country.

He instructed the BoI to formulate a mechanism on the pattern of one-window operation in consultation with all relevant ministries and provincial governments. He said a mechanism should be suggested so that investors and people who start new businesses could face minimum hurdles.

He said investment always finds a way where it faces fewer hurdles in business. He said services of experts having international repute should be hired in this regard. He stressed taking provincial governments and representatives of the business community on board before formulating the mechanism to enhance ease of doing business.

He said the Special Investment Facilitation Council played a key role in ensuring continuity of policies and achieving the goal of economic recovery. He highlighted that visits of business delegations from friendly countries and the rise in the stock exchange show trust of local and foreign investors in policies.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024