Islamabad:

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Trade on Wednesday raised the question of whether the government’s plan to increase exports to $ 60 billion in 2029 in the current economic and industrial landscape was possible.

“We think your goals are not realistic,” the committee chairman noted as officials informed the panel of the country’s export strategy.

When he spoke on the occasion, committee member Shaista Pervaiz pointed out the sharp fall in cotton production, which once stood on 14 million balls, but has now dropped to 5.5 million balls. “Look at the current state of cotton production,” she complained.

The officials defended their projections with reference to factors such as Reco DIQ’s potential, Chinese investment and global trade trends. They noticed that several countries with zero cotton production still managed to export $ 40 billion. Euro of textiles annually.

“That’s exactly what we say. Show us some extraordinary results,” the committee chairman said.

The committee of concerns about the Internet questions asked the committee chairman how exports could grow when digital connection remained unstable in the service sector.

The officials of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) assured the committee that tax and power tariff problems for the textile sector would be treated. However, they admitted that Pakistan was never witnessing an increase of 60% in agro -based exports in a given year.

TDAP officials reported that agricultural exports last year reached $ 1 billion and that flagship trade events helped export growth in several sectors.

They emphasized that in the current financial year 124 international exhibitions showed Pakistani products, 11 trading delegations visited Pakistan and 10 Pakistani Trade Delegations participated in international trade events.

The committee of the importance of fairs, committee member Yellow Asghar Khan argued that “no matter how many exhibitions we have, unless we solve dealers’ problems, nothing will change”.

Khan expressed frustration over the interruption between official briefings and the realities of the earth and said “at meetings it felt as if there was no country like Pakistan,” but regretted that no concrete results were achieved to increase exports.

Committee Member Rana Atif pointed out that in 2022 total exports were $ 32 billion, but instead of rising they dropped to $ 28 billion in 2023.