ISLAMABAD  - The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Tuesday said that Pakistan has great potential to enhance its exports through value-added products.
“Pakistan could earn much higher foreign exchange earnings by adding value to its textile and industrial products as the unit price realization for value-added products is far higher than that of low value-added products,” ICCI President Yassar Sakhi Butt said in a statement. He said UAE and other Muslim countries offer tremendous opportunities of increasing export of value added food products.
The ICCI President said that possible fast growth of exports, Pakistan would have to introduce value-addition at all levels.
He said that Pakistan cannot afford to miss its export growth targets this year or continue to delay import substitution because that would weaken its external sector and make it more dependent on external debt, which would prove harmful in the long term for the economy.
Butt said that Pakistan’s exports of textiles remained mostly concentrated on low value-added products despite a rising share of higher value added textile products in global trade.
Therefore, he called upon the government to support textile industry in moving up the value chain and increasing the share of high value added garments and made-ups in its export portfolio.
He said apart from textiles, there was a vast scope for value-addition in almost every industry including leather, plastic, food industries and those with export potential while value-addition in construction and engineering industry could earn huge amounts of foreign exchange.
He urged the government to provide easy loaning facility to industries along with facilitating them in free import of required technology and machinery which would enable Pakistan to grab its due share of exports in international market.
He said that by emphasizing on non-traditional export path, industries could not only give a hefty boost to their exports, they could also cater the growing domestic demand for sophisticated goods.