Continuous declining trend in country’s exports during the last couple of years have been a source of great concern not only for the federal government but also for the exporters. Exports not only contribute towards building of country’s foreign exchange reserves along with home remittances by Pakistanis immigrants but also reduce somewhat negative impact of imports which are essentially required by industrial and other sectors.

In view of this persisting declining trend in exports, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had announced a hefty exports package of Rs 180 billion in January 2017 to stem the rout and bring about turn around in exports through incentives and accelerated efforts by the exporters.

Reports that country’s exports are showing signs of turn around are indeed very encouraging and appreciable. It is quite good to note that Pakistan’s textile exports have gone up 7.91 per cent during the just ended first quarter of current financial year i.e. July to September 2017.

Textile goods worth 3.3 billion dollars were exported during July-September 2017this against corresponding period of last fiscal when goods worth 3.00 billion dollars were exported.

Accordingly handsome growth in textile exports have pushed the overall exports figures to 5.2 billion during the period under report against 4.7 billion dollars in corresponding period last financial year.

Quite obviously this is a positive indicator that the country’s exports have started showing upward trend . Hopefully this positive trend will continue in the months to come. This is only a beginning in the right direction. Accelerated efforts should continue for exploring new markets where there is possible demand manufactured Pakistani goods to take exports beyond 25 billion dollars by end of June 2018.

ZOHAIB AHMAD QURESHI,

Lahore, October 22.