Govts waste foreign exchange on import of non-essential items: Unisame

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has said that imports and exports are like warp and weft of an economy and both considered favourable when more or less equal. If the imports of essential raw materials are discouraged or curbed, it will reflect on exports, a statement said.

Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said that Pakistan is an import-based economy and it imports raw materials, packing materials, machinery and parts, solar panels, chemicals, medicines, etc.

He lamented that despite being an agricultural country, the political and trade leadership has never focused on industrialisation and not even agro-based industries.

“We never understood what productivity means and wasted time, energy and money on,” he added.

Thaver regretted that the governments kept importing non-essential and luxury items and wasted precious foreign exchange.

“Today, Pakistan is in dire need of foreign currency and as a consequence of the wrong policies, we have become dependent and are in huge debts,” he remarked.

The Unisame Council members said that other factors are corruption, inefficiency, wastage of energy, water, food and above all time.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had to curb imports and it should only allow necessities. The government should focus on enhancing the exports and the overseas Pakistanis, friendly countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should support Pakistan.

The Unisame experts suggested that the government authorities need to ask for suppliers’ credit facility from China and other countries for chemicals, plastic granules, oil and machinery and parts, especially Japan for machinery and automobile engines to keep the industries functioning.

The Exim Bank could open accounts of foreign suppliers and keep remitting their bills on maturity dates. This could give crutches to the economy, they noted.

The containers already imported and stuck up at ports are being cleared to infuse some strength to the economy but it is merely a first aid situation to a badly damaged economy.

All contracts are being renegotiated and credit period are being extended and revised hopefully and favourably.
The real solution lies in enhancing exports and this can be done by value addition and focusing on the geographical indication (GI) items and on untapped markets.

The exports need to be increased on war footings and the SME sector could play an important role. The much-needed SME export promotion bureau and the value addition bureau need to be established, the experts said.

Although the steering committee was formed some years ago, yet again it was shelved for reasons best known to the policymakers.

The Unisame Council urged Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar to immediately take measures to make things happen, as meetings and discussions will not increase the exports.

The SME stakeholders must be called upon to play its role to increase exports of textiles, footwear, leather goods, sports goods, surgical goods, cutlery, commodities, electrical goods, light engineering goods and foodstuffs and must be supported as best as possible.

The government can borrow or sell its assets but arrange funds to enable imports of raw materials for the SME units and enable them to achieve export targets, they added.