Trade Development Authority of Pakistan has been working without legal cover for nearly three years as the government has failed to bring the authority under an Act of parliament after the TDAP ordinance lapsed in March 2012.

The government had introduced the ordinance in the form of bill in the parliament on October 14, 2009 to provide legal cover to the authority. Since then it has been lying dormant in the lap of standing committees.

Last week, the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce approved the TDAP bill with revised objectives. Now the bill is expected to be approved in the current session of the Senate. Experts have raised serious questions, as to how can spending of around Rs2 billion so far, in violation of the country’s laws be tolerated.

An official in the commerce ministry believes that the Act of parliament will provide legal cover to the spending made during the period under review.

The proposed bill has put forward seven clear objectives for the TDAP. Its mandate includes maximisation of exports of goods and services, and development of plans and strategy within the government’s policy framework. It will be required to develop a consistent, sustainable and result-oriented holistic export development plan.

TDAP will have to achieve synergy in development of exports at a national level by forging effective liaison with private and public stakeholders, encouraging and promoting research in trade and policy related studies, and organising local, international and inter-provincial export promotional conferences etc.

Through the bill, the number of board member from the private sector has been reduced substantially, to make more focused to targeted segments. As per the proposed amendments, the board will have 16 members, down from earlier 27.

Of these, eight members will be from the government sector, one each from leather and leather garments, textile, value added textiles, rice, agriculture and include the FPCCI president. One representative each from the standing committee on commerce of the National Assembly and Senate will also be member of the board. Earlier, it was not a board but a crowd, according to a former participant. As a result, only a few board meetings were held since 2007 till to date to approve the export strategy and financial matters.

Traditionally, TDAP does not take care of the supply side and domestic commerce but only focuses on international trade promotion measures. However, past experiences show that most of the funds meant for export promotions were diverted to virtually useless consultancies, not always productive exhibitions and foreign trips for officials.

Though TDAP is the implementing arm of the ministry of commerce for export initiatives, it is located in the extreme South of the country. Most of the officers are from the North and do not want to be posted in the South. So, competent officers avoid being posted in TDAP. As a result, TDAP is deprived of talented and efficient technocrats/bureaucrats.

There is a need to transfer officers in TDAP to different regions on the basis of products manufactured there. For example, officers posted in Sialkot should look after products like sports goods, surgical goods, etc., which are manufactured in the city. The same exercise can be carried out for other specific products. Reshuffling should be product-specific.

Similarly, with the 18th amendments and transferring of power to provinces, the role of provincial government has also become very important. Therefore, some of the offices in Karachi need to be relocated to other provinces especially to Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkwa, which are almost neglected and under-staffed.

A senior official of the ministry of commerce says the ministry is also considering reviving the TDAP export promotion committees. “The committee will be established at the provincial and central levels”, the official added.

It may be a good initiative to revive committees which can provide sectoral opinion and also play an advisory role. Unfortunately, earlier the committees were only established to either promote interests of certain lobbies. The committees should have representation of academics, and other professionals.

One major challenge for TDAP is to create awareness about potential in the international markets and help establish linkages on supply side to facilitate exports of non-traditional products.