FAISALABAD, Aug 11: State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Ishrat Husain has said the gap of $3.4 billion in foreign trade was the biggest challenge for the country, which could only be filled either from exports or curtailment of imports.

Speaking to the members of the All-Pakistan Cloth Exporter Association here on Wednesday, he said during last five years more than $3 billion machinery had been imported that had helped the country maintain the export tempo.

He claimed that the private sector was being given importance by the government and this was reflective in the capital market performance, which had expanded from Rs7 billion to Rs25 billion. After China, only Pakistan and India were in a position to dominate the world markets of textiles, he added.

Ever since the present government came into power, no state-owned unit has been established, he said, but the public sector units were expeditiously being off loaded. He pointed out that the impact of these consistent policies has been felt with the country, but had also been acknowledged by world economic bodies, particularly the IMF.