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Friday March 29, 2024

‘Manufacturing sectors in trouble owing to high cost of production’

By Our Correspondent
March 05, 2021

MULTAN: The Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry convener Thursday said Pakistani manufacturing sectors are in severe troubles because of high input cost of production.

The domestic industry is not competitive in the international markets. The neighboring countries, China, Bangladesh and India are their competitors. Talking to reporters, Mian Iqbal Hassan said Pakistani imports had been increasing and exports shrinking for the last 12 years.

He said trade deficit had been reduced for the last two years and has come down from $37.67 billion to $22.5 billion. He said 65 percent Pakistani exports were textile products and 60 percent of the exports were of low value addition or even highly subsidized from the taxpayers money.

He said it was impossible to make progress without high value addition. He said automobile industry plays a vital role in the development of any country because it is a high value addition industry and it is the mother of all industries and produces any moving parts industries irrespective of any type. He said China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia were economically flourished because of their auto industries development.

He said agriculture is the lifeline of the economy of the country and to achieve and promote this segment, the country needs water dams for irrigation and cheap power production at Rs 1.64 per KWH, good quality hybrid seeds and more mechanisation.

The cultivated fertile areas are reducing due to colonisation of urban surrounding areas all over the country and production and sales of tractors consistently declined exponentially every year, he said.

Mian Iqbal said the present government has started construction of dams to increase per acre yield and cheap power generation will result in the promotion of exports.

He said Pakistan yield per hectare is quite low as compared to global bench mark and hampering her economy. He said our production of sugarcane is 40 to 45pc lower, maize 45pc to 50pc, wheat 30 to 40pc, cotton 40pc to 45pc, basmati rice 40pc to 45pc and pulses 45pc to 50pc.