KARACHI: Pakistan’s exports are expected to decline by around $3 billion during the current fiscal year due to sluggish global demand and ensuing lockdowns following the coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan’s commerce minister said on Sunday.
The South Asian country’s exports plunged by a massive 54 percent in April 2020 compared to the same month last year, and stood at $957 million. The overall exports from Pakistan during July-April 2019-20 declined by 3 percent to $18.4 billion, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data shows.
“I think approximately the export would decline by $2 billion to $3 billion due to COVID-19,” Abdul Razak Dawood, adviser to Prime Minister for Commerce, Textile and Investment told Arab News in an exclusive interview.
The declining trend shows the country will be unable to achieve its $25 billion export target set for the current fiscal year. However, government officials say they are trying hard to recoup part of lost export revenues by product diversification.
“Our main exports is textile and they (textile exporters) are adjusting by going to medical markets,” Dawood said and added: “We are going to allow exports of various medical items such as masks, uniforms (protective suits) and other related textile-made products and sanitizers”.
The de facto commerce minister also said trade queries from different countries were continuously pouring in about the exports of medical products.
“Many inquires are flowing in and they are asking if we would allow exports and we have responded,” Dawood said. He added they would be allowed and that he was confident the country would compensate for the substantial amount of its losses from exports.
Pakistan largely relies on the export of textile products which make up more than 50 percent of its total exports. During the last fiscal year the country was able to export $22.98 billion worth of goods of which the share of textile goods was $13.33 billion.
“We are working on diversification of products and diversification of geographical markets. Central Asian Republics and Africa are our major focus,” Dawood said. “We are also looking to USA and Europe as potential markets for our textile made medical products,” he added.
The Middle East remains one of Pakistan’s major trading partners-- where the demand for food products has increased substantially after the lockdowns.
“Our exports to the Middle East have increased by around 26 percent during the current year. In Middle East the demand of meat, poultry and rice has substantially increased,” Dawood said.
Recently, Pakistan has made inroads into African markets where the demand for tractors, textile and food products was surging until COVID-19 arrested growth.
“Before COVID-19, our exports to the African market were increasing and this year an increase has also been witnessed as compared to last year. But unfortunately due to COVID-19 what we were expecting has not been achieved,” he added.
Responding to a question about the upcoming federal budget which is expected to be announced in the first week of next month, the commerce minister said the major focus would be on the promotion of domestic commerce.
“In budget as far as the ministry of commerce is concerned.. we have our major focus on rationalization of the tariff so that our program of ‘Made in Pakistan’ is given attention,” he said.
Dawood added that under the current circumstances, efforts were underway to rely less on imports and encourage manufacturing in Pakistan.
