ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said the government was committed to making Pakistan an effective part of regional and global supply chains through trade facilitation.
He was chairing the first meeting of the Trade Facilitation Board.
He said the government was committed to providing all possible facilities to the business community.
“Promoting trade and facilitating business activities is among the top priorities of the government,” he said, adding that effective steps should be taken to eliminate unnecessary delays in trade processes, reduce business costs and promote exports.
“The main objective of the board is to remove obstacles in all trade-related procedures. All relevant institutions at high-volume ports should provide facilities to the business community in one place.
“A system of joint inspection and joint profiling of various institutions should be promoted. A comprehensive audit of all non-tariff measures should be conducted, and unnecessary obstacles in the way of trade should be removed. Effective measures should be taken to bring direct shipping lines to Pakistani ports,” he remarked.
He said direct shipping facilities will make it easier and faster to deliver products from Pakistani factories to global buyers.
He directed the development of a National Trade Performance Index to measure key indicators, including cargo dwell time, customs clearance, logistics, ship clearance time, post-clearance audit, and pre-clearance.
He called for special steps to increase the share of small and medium enterprises in trade and urged identifying obstacles faced by SMEs by mapping different stages of their trade journey.
“Risk management system should be made more effective to facilitate trade. Controls should be expanded from pre-arrival to post-release stage to speed up the cargo clearance process, and detailed inspection of only high-risk cargo should be undertaken,” he continued.
He said: “Use of artificial intelligence should be initiated to make risk management more effective and to speed up the trade process.”
The meeting was briefed about the targets of the Time Release Automated System for all ports.
Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2026
