ISLAMABAD: Pakistani exports registered a whopping increase of over 13 percent in February when compared to the corresponding month of the last year as the country received more orders from the international market amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Global stock markets, businesses, manufacturing and production have slowed down since January when the novel coronavirus outbreak was first reported in China’s Wuhan city that has now spread to more than 80 countries and territories.
The virus has killed more than 3,300 people, most of them in mainland China, with more than 95,000 global cases.
The country has registered an increase of 13.82 percent in the exports with a 1.71 percent decrease in imports, bringing down the balance of trade to 14.61 percent in February, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Pakistan’s total exports were recorded at $24.7 billion in the last fiscal year which the government is struggling to double in the next five years to bridge the fiscal deficit, avert balance of payments crisis and boost foreign exchange reserves.
“The recent increase in our exports is mainly attributed to the coronavirus crisis which has slowed down global production, especially in China,” Shahid Sattar, executive-director of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Associations, told Arab News on Thursday.
He said that Pakistani exporters had started getting more orders from different countries after the spread of coronavirus since it decelerated production and manufacturing activities in China, one of the largest exporters to the developed countries.
“We will be able to retain this global market share and increase our exports manifold in the coming months, provided that our exporters maintain the quality of their products,” Sattar said.
Pakistan has devalued its currency by approximately 32 percent in the last two years and introduced a number of incentives for manufacturers and industrialists in a bid to boost its exports. The country also secured a $6 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May last year, promising to let the currency exchange rate adjust to market conditions.
“The increase in the export figures is a sign that the economy of the country is moving in the right direction,” Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan for Commerce, Industry and Investment, said on Thursday.
Economists and experts have, however, urged the government to formulate a long-term export policy to retain the upward trend and increase the country’s access to global markets.
“Until and unless we boost our competitiveness in the global market with respect to Bangladesh, Turkey and Vietnam, we won’t be able to sustain the increase in our exports,” Haroon Sharif, senior economist and former chairman of the Board of Investment, told Arab News.
He said that Pakistan would need to increase its exports to at least $40 billion in the next five years to boost its foreign exchange reserves and strengthen its economy to a level where it can avoid IMF loans.
“It’s a long struggle to boost the exports, and we need to be consistent in our policies to achieve the goal,” Sharif added.
Pakistan’s exports pick up amid coronavirus pandemic
https://arab.news/mqesk
Pakistan’s exports pick up amid coronavirus pandemic
- The country can retain the global market share by providing quality products, say industrialists
- Experts believe Pakistan must adopt consistent policies to boost the exports to $40 billion in five years
UN rights chief says 56 Afghan civilians killed since Pakistan conflict escalates
- Death toll includes 24 children and six women, with 129 others injured
- UN says about 115,000 Afghans, 3,000 Pakistanis displaced by fighting along border
GENEVA::The United Nations rights chief said Friday that 56 Afghan civilians had been killed — nearly half of them children — since hostilities with neighboring Pakistan intensified last week.
“I plead with all parties to bring an end to the conflict, and to prioritize helping those experiencing extreme hardship,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
The neighbors have clashed along the frontier since February 26, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes.
Islamabad has hit back along the border and with fresh air strikes, bombing multiple sites including the former US air base at Bagram, the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.
Turk said that since the intensification of hostilities, “56 civilians, including 24 children and six women, have been killed.”
“A further 129 people, including 41 children and 31 women, have been injured,” he said.
And since the start of the year, the numbers are even higher, with 69 civilians killed in Afghanistan and 141 injured, he said.
Pakistan insists it has not killed any civilians in the conflict. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
The UN refugee agency said Thursday that around 115,000 Afghans and 3,000 people in Pakistan had been displaced by the fighting in the past week.
“Civilians on both sides of the border are now having to flee from air strikes, heavy artillery fire, mortar shelling and gunfire,” Turk said.
He lamented that a new wave of violence was affecting people “whose lives have been tormented by violence and misery for so long.”
He highlighted that over two million Afghans had returned to Afghanistan since Pakistan started to implement its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” in September 2023.
And nearly as many were believed to remain in Pakistan, “where many face hardship and constant fear of arrest and deportation,” he said.
“As a result of the violence, humanitarian assistance is unable to reach many of those desperately in need. This is piling misery on misery,” the rights chief said.
He called on “the Pakistan military and Afghan de facto security forces to end immediately their fighting, and to prioritize helping the millions who depend on aid.”
