Category: Economic Growth

The United States government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), today launched the Women’s Economic Empowerment Activity (WEEA). This five-year initiative supports the Government of Pakistan’s efforts to promote women’s social and economic empowerment through safe and dignified access to income opportunities, information, resources, and services.

The WEEA program offers solutions for women, communities, and governments to address structural and socio-economic barriers that prevent women from fully participating in their communities.  It also aims to reduce economic gaps and make progress toward gender equality, at both the community and institutional levels.  In accordance with Pakistan’s national strategy, WEEA demonstrates the United States’ commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment by helping women and girls attain their full potential in every aspect of society.

“USAID proudly partners with the Government of Pakistan to promote peaceful communities, increase economic growth, and strengthen global health security capacities,” said USAID Mission Director Julie Koenen.  “The Women’s Economic Empowerment Activity is yet another manifestation of our commitment to enabling women-led business that will play an important role in Pakistan’s economic growth.”

“A nation is considered on the path to prosperity if all its citizens are empowered,” said Akbar Ayab Khan, Minister for Local Government, Election, and Rural Development in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  “Women’s empowerment has been one of my government’s top priorities and an essential part of our governance.  Our vision is to elevate women’s labor force participation by 45 percent by 2025.  We thank USAID for partnering with us and taking our work forward.”

A component of this project will facilitate the Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) registration of 1.25 million women in 49 districts across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Punjab provinces.  The initiative complements the Election Commission of Pakistan’s efforts to bridge the gap between male and female voters in Pakistan, which focuses on increasing women’s participation in the electoral process by mobilizing unregistered women to acquire CNICs.

Source of the news: https://pk.usembassy.gov/united-states-and-pakistan-launch-womens-economic-empowerment-activity/

Baku and Islamabad have set up the Pakistan-Azerbaijan Chamber of Economic Cooperation (PAKAZCHAM) to develop and deepen economic cooperation between the two countries, local media has reported.

Membership of the Chamber will soon be open to legal and commercial structures of both countries, with Baku hosting the permanent representation of the Chamber.

During the opening ceremony of the chamber, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Elnur Aliyev said that Azerbaijan plans to open a trade representative office in Pakistan.

By stressing the constant development of political and economic relations between the two countries, Aliyev added that the Chamber would make a great contribution to the development of business ties and partnership and would also contribute to the trade turnover and mutual investments between the two countries.

“The Chamber will open up new opportunities for the development of economic cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

Other high-ranking Azerbaijani officials including, representatives of the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Business, the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (Azpromo) and business circles also took part at the opening ceremony.

The chamber aims to help strengthen business ties, support education, promote and expand trade and investment between the two countries.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Pakistan amounted to $13.2 million in 2020, with exports amounting to $1.6 million and imports to $11.6 million. In addition, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $3.1 million in the first quarter of 2021.

During the 44-day war with Armenia in 2020, Pakistan was among the first countries voicing political support for Azerbaijan. Pakistan also supports Azerbaijan in the restoration of the country’s liberated territories.

Source of the news: https://www.azernews.az/business/180992.html

Pakistan’s exports to the UK saw a double-digit increase during the last fiscal year of 2020/21, crossing the two-billion-dollar mark for the first time despite Brexit uncertainties, according to the ministry of commerce on Friday.

The commerce ministry announced that exports to the UK increased 33 percent to $2.025 billion during the last fiscal year compared to $1.526 billion in the preceding fiscal year, an increase of $499 million.

“The UK is a very important trading partner and is the first time that our exports have crossed $2 billion mark,” Adviser to Prime Minister Commerce and Investment Razak Dawood wrote on Twitter.

“I would like to commend our exporters for this remarkable accomplishment. I also commend MOC’s trade and investment officers in the UK and urge them to work harder in finding opportunities for our exporters and provide facilitation to our businessmen,” Dawood added.

The growth came in the midst of coronavirus-led world transition with global economy having loosened growth pace rapidly, exerting pressures on low- and middle-income economies to tediously recover from the downfall. However, it also created opportunities on exports front for economies like Pakistan that is benefitting from diversion in export orders and utilization capacity of industries.

Being a major partner in the Europe, the UK’s economic slowdown could not affect Pakistan’s economy because of its smallest market share in Britain. Even its exit from the main European Union (EU) block – that applies concessional tariffs on products coming from Pakistan under the generalised scheme of preferences (GSP) plus – didn’t lead to negative implications.

Before the Brexit, exports to the UK were governed by the GSP plus scheme of the EU.

Pakistan Business Council said the UK is Pakistan’s fourth largest market for exports and 85 percent of Pakistan’s exports to the UK consist of other made-up textile articles, articles of apparel, cotton and articles of leather. All these products enjoyed duty-free access to the UK under the GSP+.

The UK is also Pakistan’s 15th largest source of imports. Major imports from the UK include iron and steel, machinery, electrical/electronic equipment, other made-up textile articles, and miscellaneous chemical products. Under the GSP+ scheme, 96 percent of Pakistani exports had preferential market access to the UK.

A number of times, British government has assured Pakistan of continuous support despite Brexit. Unlike general perception that the Brexit would be hurtful, it hasn’t been so far.

Source of the news: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/858520-pakistan-s-exports-to-uk-surge-33-percent-in-fy2021

After completing required international food safety and security standards, China has allowed 7 more Pakistani rice units to export rice.

The initiative would help further increase the exports of rice, specially would enable Pakistani rice exporters to penetrate in Chinese markets. In this regard, authorities of both sides including Department of Plant Protection and relevant Chines authorities organized several meetings and video conferences to materialize the existing scope of local rice exports to China, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that prior to approval of new companies, as may as 46 companies were exporting rice to China, adding that after the approval of 7 new companies, the number of total companies would reach to 53.

In order to enhance local rice exports for Chines markets, he said that Department of Plant Protection was continuously negotiating with concern Chines authorities and conducting survey and video inspections of different rice exporting units. He further informed that after meeting all required standards and maintaining quality protocols, 7 local companies were allowed. He said that Russia had also lifted ban on the import of rice from Pakistan that would help in significant increase of local rice exports to Russian markets as well as penetrating in other high end markets.

The Department of Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine Division, Ministry of Commerce in close coordination with Trade Minister of Embassy of Pakistan in Moscow, played vital role for the resumption of local rice exports to Russian markets, he added. Initially, four local companies were allowed to export rice to Russia, however, a delegation was scheduled to visit Moscow to explore more opportunities for the companies for enhancing rice exports to Russia, he added. The resumption of rice exports to Russian markets would help in fetching additional $200 to $ 300 million each year, which would benefit the local growers.

Source of the news: https://dailytimes.com.pk/786836/7-more-pakistani-firms-allowed-for-exporting-rice-to-china/

Pakistan’s exports continued to set milestones after its shipments to the United States crossed the $5-billion mark for the first time during the recently-concluded fiscal year, shared Advisor to the Prime Minister on Trade and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood in a series of tweets on Monday.

The development comes after Pakistan witnessed record-high exports of $ 25.3 billion in 2020-21, including $ 15.5 billion in textile and $ 2 billion in IT services, in fiscal year 2020-21, nearly $ 4 billion higher than the $ 21.4 billion achieved in 2019-20.

“We are pleased to inform that our exports to the US during FY2021 increased by 39% to $ 5.2 billion as compared to $ 3.7 billion during FY 2020, an increase of around $1.45 billion.

“This is the first time in our history that our exports to the US have crossed the $5-billion mark,” he said.

“I commend the efforts of our exporters and our Trade & Investment Officers (TIOs) in the US. I urge our TIOs to provide all possible facilitation to our exporters for enhancing our exports further,” added Dawood.

Earlier, talking to media persons, Dawood informed that Pakistan has set a $35-billion export target for the current fiscal year.

Dawood is advocating a ‘high-target, high-achievement approach’, adding that milestones of $28 billion for goods and $7 billion for services for the current fiscal year 2021-22 have been set.

“We know it would be a Herculean task to achieve because the world is opening and everybody is going to get into the export market but everybody should move and try to make it achievable,” he said.

Earlier, in a series of tweets on Thursday, Dawood congratulated Pakistani exporters for achieving the feat. “Our exporters have done it!! It gives me immense pleasure to share that our exports of goods during FY 2020-21 stand at $25.3 billion,” said the advisor.

Source of the news: https://www.brecorder.com/news/40105099/pakistans-exports-to-us-cross-5b-mark-highest-ever-says-dawood

To tap into an over $90 billion Central Asian export market, Pakistan is planning to sign transit and preferential trade agreements (PTA) during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Uzbekistan later this month to attend the ‘Silk Route Connect’ Conference, Khan’s commerce adviser has said.

The summit, which will take place in Tashkent on July 15-16, was conceived by Pakistan’s commerce ministry earlier this year and is being organized by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP). Khan is expected to leave for Uzbekistan on July 13 or 14.

“During the visit of the prime minister, Pakistan and Uzbekistan will sign a number of agreements, including Transit and PTA,” Abdul Razak Dawood, adviser to the PM on commerce, told Arab News in an exclusive interview in Islamabad, estimating that trade potential for the export of goods between Asian countries and Uzbekistan stood at over $90 billion.

Dawood said signing the PTA would help Pakistan diversify its export market outside of Europe and the United States.

 “Pakistani exporters have been concentrating on Europe, UK, America, Japan and Korea but there is a much bigger world so one of our policies is to look at the Central Asia republics and that is why we have selected this ‘Silk Route Reconnect’ theme and we have selected Uzbekistan,” the commerce adviser said. “Uzbekistan is the only country that is connected with all Central Asian countries and they have very good infrastructure.”

Dawood added: “We are hopeful once we begin in Uzbekistan in July 2021 and our businesspeople settle in, we would be able to have more and more exports not only to Uzbekistan but to other Central Asian republics.”

The PM’s aide said Islamabad and Tashkent had agreed to set up warehouses in their respective countries for the facilitation of trade: “Dedicated space in Gwadar and Tashkent would be allocated for setting up warehouses.”

In May this year, the first TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers/ International Road Transport) vehicle successfully crossed into Pakistan carrying goods from Uzbekistan via Afghanistan.

“After the successful trial of TIR we are planning to increase the flow of goods among the Asian countries”, Dawood said.

The PM’s adviser did not rule out the possibility of Pakistan accessing Moscow through land routes via Central Asian countries where the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) have set up road and railway infrastructure links with Russia.

Source of the news: https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1889236/pakistan

“Our exports have done quite well in our major markets,” Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said on Tuesday. 

He tweeted that Pakistan’s exports to China increased by 34% to $2.33 billion during the fiscal year 2020-21 as compared to $1.74 billion in the previous financial year, going up by $586 million.

The country’s exports to Germany grew by 19% to $1.5 billion over the previous FY’s $1.3 billion, he added.

The PM aide said Pakistan exports to the Netherlands increased by 23% to $1.2 billion as compared to the previous FY’s $1 billion and exports to Poland increased by 28% to $308 million in FY2020-21 as compared to $241 million in FY2019-20.

He lauded exporters saying they have “accomplished this despite the problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic & they deserve credit for it.”

He also commended the efforts of the Ministry of Commerce’s trade and investment officers

Source of the news: https://arynews.tv/pakistans-exports-do-quite-well-in-major-global-markets/

https://youtu.be/oHtRrO50kds