LAHORE, Nov 2: The chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Tariq Ikram on Tuesday said that a lot of spade work for the restructuring of the bureau has been completed.

Talking to newsmen at regional office of the EPB, he said that efforts were being made to transform EPB into the Export Development Authority of Pakistan, enjoying more financial and administrative powers like a corporate entity.

"We are trying to ensure that both financial and administrative powers and the accountability go side by side in the future structure of restructured EPB," he said.

Talking about the recent weakening of the rupee, Tariq Ikram said that this development was, no doubt, very positive for country's exports. However, he said, such a situation created problems on the import side.

He said in such a situation, the exporters start holding the remittances in the hope of better exchange rate.

He appealed to the exporters to bring the remittances into the country as early as possible in the larger interest of the economy.

Tariq Ikram said that the EPB had always wished to bring the exports of the country at par with imports. However, he said, ministries of Industries and Agriculture should make efforts for the production of more exportable surpluses in line with international market standards.

He said that Pakistan could not export one million tons of wheat to Iraq last year due to unexpected shortfall in the production of this staple food.

Moreover, he said, ministries of labour, industries and Central Board of Revenue (CBR) should work together to bring down the cost of production by simplifying the taxation and labour-related procedures.

Quoting a recent report of Asian Development Bank (ADB), Tariq Ikram said there was need to resolve problems in the areas like customs clearance and social security levies.

He said that diversification of Pakistan's exports in terms of geographical destinations and commodities had helped increase volume of country's exports by $3.74 billion over the last five years.

He said that exports to Africa and Eastern Europe rose by 148pc and 178pc respectively during this period.-APP