KARACHI:
Experts have warned the government against taking the European Union (EU) conventions non-seriously if it wants to avail the benefits of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Plus beyond 2017.
“I am sure that even our most important ministries have not gone through the requirements of GSP Plus scheme that the country has to comply with,” Habib Metropolitan Bank President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sirajuddin Aziz commented during a panel discussion of a conference on ‘GSP Plus: Opportunities Through Good Governance’.
The conference was organised by the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG) on Wednesday.
After commenting on the government’s responsibility, Aziz said that the country would see improvement in governance when individuals also feel their responsibilities.
“Pakistan is a nation of 180 million leaders, that is why we have so many leaders and no followers,” said Aziz as he concluded his speech on corporate governance.
Pakistan’s top experts who gathered from different sectors also urged the private sector to do what it can for the GSP Plus scheme instead of only relying on the government.
“It’s a collective process in which both the private and public sector need to take steps,” Orient Textile Mills CEO Iqbal Ebrahim said.
“But I must tell you, we have to take care of the 27 international conventions to succeed in the reassessment that the EU would do after three years in 2017, or we will lose these important duty concessions,” warned Ebrahim.
However, former chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Abdullah Yusuf allayed fears. “The government can improve things and there is no need to be pessimistic,” said Yusuf.
Most of the speakers seemed confident with PML-N’s commitment on the issue and said that they believe the government is serious about benefitting from trade concessions.
“Pakistani leather companies are getting orders from Europe for new products and industrialists are confident that this will continue,” Firoz International CEO Gulzar Firoz said.
Speaking on diversification, Firoz citied various examples of new leather products that have been developed by local industries, and are now being exported to Europe.
However, Firoz urged government to start focusing on environment-related EU conventions.
The experts were unanimous that with the GSP Plus scheme, Pakistan has a strong edge over its competing countries. They quoted the examples of incoming Chinese investments in the country’s textile sector and the decline of China’s share in world textile market.
China’s share in world textile market has declined to $270 billion from $300 billion. This is happening at a time when Pakistan is going to improve its position in world textile market. Besides, China’s textile imports from Pakistan have also jumped to $1.7 billion which is another opportunity for Pakistan to increase its exports.
In last six months, textile sector has outperformed KSE-100 Index by a big margin. Textile sector posted a return of 37% in last six months against the overall KSE-100 return of 15%.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of new duty concessions in EU market would be the textile industry of Pakistan that exported products worth $13.1 billion in last fiscal year – almost half of Pakistan’s total exports of $24.6 billion.
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