KARACHI (APP) - State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) can divert a portion of Rs 40 billion available under export refinance scheme to rice exporters. This was stated by the Governor SBP Syed Salim Raza while addressing the members of Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) here Saturday. There is a space of Rs 40 billion available with SBP under export refinance due to lack of utilization by certain sectors. We will take this amount from those sectors which are not using it and give it to those sectors which are in dire need of financing, he added. He invited a team of REAP to SBP head office next week to discuss the issues confronting rice exporters regarding bank's financing in details. "We can discuss opportunities and objectives of rice export business and see how SBP can help this second largest export sector in the country in terms of financing, value addition, corporatisation, storage facility and branding, he noted. Raza said that the value addition can be further enhanced in rice sector to fetch more foreign exchange for the country. Similarly, rice husk can be used to produce bio-fuel as ethanol is produced from sugarcane bagasse. The government is also encouraging the production of alternate fuel, he opined. He said that SBP could consider to provide financing under long term finance facility and machinery financing to encourage by-products in rice. The production of bio-fuel through rice husk is like exports and SBP can provide concessional financing to this sector, he observed. Responding to a complaints that banks were not providing refinancing facility and instead asking exporters to get a routing credit line, SBP Governor said that Indian exporters have gained a lot due to this attitude of our banks. He said that SBP was extremely keen to provide support to rice sector in achieving their desired goals including boosting exports from a current level of $ 2.2 billion to $ 4 billion in next few years. Earlier, chairman REAP Abdul Rahim Janoo said that rice exporters need a support from State Bank in refinancing, banks' credit for SME exporters. He suggested SBP Governor to constitute a committee consisting of SBP officials and REAP members to discuss and resolve day to day problems facing rice exporters. He said that REAP members had never asked for any subsidy or support in the past and increased rice exports from merely $ 300 million to $ 2.2 billion last year. This years target is set at $ 2.4 billion and rice exporters have so far exported rice worth $ 1.39 billion in eight months despite tough competition. Haroon Rashid urged SBP Governor to ask Pakistani banks to open at least one branch in Iran to boost rice exports to this big market. He said that Pakistan can export at least 700,000 tons of rice to Iran if proper banking facility is available to Pakistani rice exporters.