The ministry of commerce has been trying to achieve a $10 billion export target for the last ten years but keeps failing. Some people blame the bureaucracy for the failures while others attribute such failures to weak institutional support. Many are of the view that unless exporters, government officials and manufacturers are trained in export marketing, it would not be possible to achieve the target.

However, the minister of commerce while announcing the trade policy said that lack of an export culture, anti-export biases, absence of products and market diversification, red-tapism, low value addition and weak export promotion measures were the reasons for slow growth in exports.

We in Pakistan lack the competitive environment that prevails in the international arena. Moreover, Pakistan also does not have the market access which is a very important factor in exports. In many policy matters, Pakistan lags behind the more successful developing nations like South Korea, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia. It is commonly felt that so far the ministry of commerce,the Export Promotion Bureau, industry associations and other trade development institutions have failed to play a crucial role in creating an export culture in Pakistan.

But then what is an export culture? It comprises sound fiscal, monetary, exchange rate and trade policies which should aim at achieving the same objective, that is, $10 billion export target. Similarly, export strategies, adequate infrastructure, provision for effective trade support services, and targeted firm-level support are its important ingredients.

These aspects are of course, interrelated. At the policy level, essential factors for creating export culture include a stable macroeconomic environment, outward-looking trade and industrial rules, a proactive foreign investment strategy, sustained investment in human capital, comprehensive technology support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), access to industrial finance at competitive interest rates, and an efficient and cost-competitive infrastructure covering everything from cargo services to Internet access. It simply means that the ministry of commerce should address supply-side constraints to improve competitiveness. The ministry has to take steps that can help Pakistani companies to improve productivity, quality, compliance with international standards, saleable designs, environmentally acceptable packaging and so forth.

Moreover, Pakistani businessmen should cultivate habits to produce effective economic actions. One of these is to consider thoroughly a proposed policy impact on productivity, on competitive strength in the world market, and on balance of payments and trade.

It has been observed that unlike the Japanese, Pakistanis are not conscious of their dependence on imports for energy raw materials, edible oils etc. For example during the 60’s, then finance minister, (late) Mr Shoaib advocated a theory, according to which, the government did not invest enough in increasing the output of wheat when the USAID supplied wheat to Pakistan under PL 480.. The total cotton and rice crops were pledged for a meagre amount of $100 to $200 million during the early days of General Ziaul.

The ministry of commerce at that time should have opposed the expansion of the automobile industry because it was a way to a consumer society. Moreover, a large automobile market provoked irresistible demand for foreign smuggled goods. This had a deleterious effect on the balance of trade and balance of payments.

Many Pakistani financial experts still maintain that letting the Pakistani automobile industry expand was a serious mistake. Even with record sales in the domestic market, the industry’s export earnings are almost zero while the automobiles cost Pakistan heavily in foreign exchange as petroleum and iron are imported. A small part of the sum spent on motorways and highways would have expanded the Pakistani railroads, the freight-carrying capacity, the country still lacks.

In Pakistan, interest groups with endless array of economic federations, industrial associations, professional societies, special interest clubs and guilds abound, each of which lobbies brazenly, using its power and money to advance its own selfish ends which causes immense national loss. It is unnatural to expect any group to be completely unselfish, however, we can expect from them that each of them keeps the national interests much more above their self interests. But unfortunately, in Pakistan, the elite behave totally in reverse and keep their own interests much more above the national interests.

It is because of such a situation that bureaucracy failed to earn a good image for Pakistan in the international market and to improve quality of their products. Recently the whole consignment of one million tons wheat was rejected by Iraq on the ground of its poor quality.