KARACHI, Jan 23: Commerce Minister Humanyun Akhtar Khan has directed the Export Promotion Bureau to audit the accounts of all the technical and human resource development institutions set up out of the Export Development Fund (EDF).

Addressing newsmen in the EPB head office at the FTC building, here on Wednesday evening, the minister said that the EPB will hold detailed audit of all such accounts where funds were provided from the EDF.

Stressing the need of value-addition in all export goods, the minister said that the investment policy of 1997, under which import of plant and machinery was at zero rate, will be revived soon.

He said that for achieving value-addition there is an urgent need of modern technology as well as human resource development in all the export-oriented industries.

“As a nation we have reached a stage where we could not increase our earnings through exports without going into value addition,” the minister asserted.

For achieving this, he said, research and development has to be taken up at all levels and the industry will have to link with universities and research institutions, locally or aboard.

Responding to a question, he said, “We have requested the EU to allow 2000 tons out of flexibility quota for category 9 (towel) and hope that for category 20 and 6 (bedlinen and shorts, pants) the overshipment will be adjusted against quota from 2003.

Similarly, he said that US has given 50 per cent extra quota on discrepancies, and that on computerization of quota allocation and shipment the problem of reconciliation will be over.

He expressed the hope that after the computerization the online facility of reconciliation would remove the problem of over-shipment.

To a point, the vice chairman, EPB, Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi said that more funds were being sought by the tanners for the Korangi treatment plant, but the EPB has asked them to first utilize funds from their own resources and only then the EPB will release more funds from the EDF.