Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday said that the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) had the potential of $40-60 billion export in the next 3 to 5 years.

Speaking at the ‘Export-led Economy – Race to $100 billion’ ceremony, along with Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan, he said that the government would facilitates SMEs sector to achieve this potential target.

The minister reaffirmed the government commitment to significantly increasing exports, setting an ambitious target of $100 billion within eight years.

He stressed that achieving this target within eight years, would be beneficial, but in case of missing, it would pose significant challenges.

Ahsan emphasized the need to enhance production and leverage key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and information technology, mining, manpower and creative industries to drive growth.

In order to increase the exports, the government would collaborate with the relevant department/ministries to develop a dashboard, outlining a clear road-map for growth in these sectors, he added.

Similarly, he said that only 70 out of 500 companies on the Karachi Stock Exchange generated exports of around $10,000, and big KSE companies earned billions in profit without contributing to dollar exports.

To address this, he suggested for working on policies and incentives to encourage the private sector to contribute to the country’s exports.

Jam Kamal Khan attributed Pakistan’s export decline to various factors, including high interest rates, production costs, COVID-19, and the Ukraine conflict.

However, he highlighted that the government had formulated a strategy to increase the country exports to $60 billion.

He said that inflation and interest rates had come down consistently while the global investors were interested in investing in Pakistan.

“Investors confidence has restored after International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme”, he remarked.

“In the past, the focus was on textiles, now the focus is on pharmaceutical exports”, he added.

He said : “Pakistan’s economic future depends on significant increase in exports.”

He said that Pakistan’s textile and manufacturing sector exports had increased by 13.8% and 15.9% while agriculture exports increased by 54.8% to reach $7.95 billion in 2024. “Export Development Fund is being used effectively to increase export capacity,” he added.

He highlighted that the role of the private sector in achieving export target was extremely important and Pakistan was capable of more than $100 billion, but definitely there was need of a robust strategy.—APP

At the end of the Indonesia-South and Central Asia Business Forum (INASCA), worth $ 8.33 billion in business and investment are expected in Indonesia through different 50 trade and investment deals in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Indonesia-South and Central Asia Business Forum (INASCA), organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta on October 7, 2024, concluded with remarkable outcomes.

This extraordinary achievement follows a series of events under the “Road to INASCA” initiative that began earlier this year.

The forum successfully secured 50 business and investment deals, amounting to $ 8.33 billion. The business delegations from different chambers of Commerce from Pakistan and other South and Central Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan participated in INASCA and promoted trilateral economic integration between Indonesia and the countries of these two regions.

Businessmen from various business sectors of Pakistan, including textile, oil consumption, and IT and technology sectors, have signed various agreements in INASCA.—APP

Ijaz Kakakhel
Islamabad

A legislative body of Upper House of Parliament on Tuesday moved a privilege motion against the ministry of commerce officials responsible for non- exclusion member Parliament from the TDAP Board since 2021 abrogating the law and the Parliament.

The privilege motion moved unanimously during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce, which was held today at parliament house while Senator Anusha Rahman was on chair.

This issue has persisted on the agenda for several meetings, and after a thorough review of the records of the Commerce ministry, it was revealed that some officials of Ministry of Commerce have consistently excluded the parliamentary members from the TDAP board since 2021, without any legal authority using unsubstantiated excuses.

Committee members took serious exception to the Ministry of Commerce officials for consistently misleading the Committee’s proceedings regarding the failure to acknowledge Senator Saleem Rehman’s ratification to the TDAP board from 2021 to 2023 and later the delay continued by some ministry officials when Senator Bilal Ahmed Khan, despite his nomination by the Chairman of the Senate and subsequent ratification by the Senate Committee on Commerce in September 2024, he was not notified and the matter was unnecessarily made a bouncing ball between Ministries of Finance and Law.

Senator Bilal Khan lamented that this exclusion not only violates the rules of parliamentary conduct and the sanctity of the custodians of the House but also indicates ulterior motives, given that the TDAP received substantial funds from the EDF, which could evade oversight by Parliament.

Following due deliberations, the Committee concluded that no legal justification exists for the exclusion of parliamentarians as claimed by the ministry of commerce under the SOE Act nor under a letter of law division of 2020, which have mysteriously been made applicable to the Senators and MNAs being parliamentarians but at same time not made applicable to the nomination of the federal minister to board who is also a parliamentarian.

The Committee took strong exception to the action of officials in Commerce Ministry who without seeking legal advise from Law or Prime Minister, appointed an Advisor as the TDAP board chair in 2021, without legally authorized by Prime Minister being Federal Minister incharge.

The Committee asked for strict action against officials of commerce ministry who kept parliamentarians excluded from Board on one excuse or another in last 4 years and also those who facilitated appointment of an Advisor as TDAP chairman without authorization by the then Federal Minister Commerce. The officials of Ministry of Commerce failed to appreciate that the “status” of Federal Minister does not arrogate ‘rank’ of Federal Minister on anyone, be it an Advisor or SAPM.

After detailed deliberations it was concluded that the matter be referred to the Privilege Committee of Senate and for Establishment division to be involved to conduct inquiry on delinquent officers serving in Ministry of Commerce and take action if any inefficiency and misconduct is established.