LAHORE - The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged the government to sign free trade agreements with the regional countries, Central Asian States, Middle States and African countries to boost the exports.
LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that Pakistani exports are at the lowest as compared to the other regional countries.
He said that free trade agreements with the non-traditional countries to give a jumpstart to the national exports.
He said that Pakistani businessmen should adopt an aggressive marketing strategy to get their due share in the international market. Regional trade is another neglected area where due attention is direly needed. They said that despite having best quality, Pakistani merchandise are not finding their way to the most parts of the world just because of lack of aggressive marketing strategy.
He said that regional trade is another neglected area where we have to do a lot of work through public-private partnership.
He said that promotion of regional trade is a must to enhance exports which are showing a declining trend. He said that it is a matter of concern that our exports are going down at a time when our competitors are writing new stories of success in the global market.
We are still struggling to achieve our minimal export target despite having all resources to move forward while those countries are far ahead of us which were following our economic role model in the past”, the LCCI chief said.
He stressed the need for developing regional, product specific and target oriented marketing strategy. He said that new markets and new products need to be explored to reduce country’s dependence on few commodities and countries. He said that Pakistan’s exports are highly concentrated in few items. Such concentration in few markets can also become a source for instability in export earnings.