The National Assembly was informed Friday that the government was making efforts to sign free trade agreements with ASEAN countries to promote trade and export to these countries.
Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan told the House during Question Hour that Pakistan was in the process of signing Free Trade Agreement-II [FTA-II] with China. He said China had promised to give more facilities and market access to Pakistan products under FTA-II. He said export of pine nuts had increased to 68 million dollars in 2013-14 from 51 million in 2012-13 to China.
He informed the House that as a result Preferential Trade Agreement [PTA] signed with Indonesia, the exports of Kinnow had increased to 19.22 million dollars in 2013-14 from 3.2 million dollars in 2012. He said the PTA with Indonesia would also facilitate Pakistan’s entry into ASEAN market.
Khurram Dastgir Khan told the House that the ministry of commerce had developed a performance evaluation criteria covering qualitative and quantitative aspects for the valuation of trade officers. He said contracts of those trade officers had not been renewed whose performance was not up to the mark.
Replying a question, the commerce minister informed the House that Pakistan and Afghanistan recognise the imperative work together to effectively combat the menace of terrorism through strengthening border controls and management.
He said the government had turned a new leaf in Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan. He said Pakistan did not favour any party in Afghanistan as she respected its sovereignty and expected this to be reciprocated. He pointed out that Pakistan and Afghanistan were cooperating closely to eliminate terrorism.
He said in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Peshawar, the chief of army staff again visited Kabul and shared vital elements of intelligence with concerned authorities. The Afghan president assured that the Afghan soil would not be allowed for terrorist activities against Pakistan.
He said the terrorist infrastructure in North Waziristan had been eliminated after the launch of operation Zarb-e-Azb. He said Pakistan also requested the Afghan authorities to take complementary action on their side of the border to block the fleeing terrorist and eliminate terrorists’ sanctuaries.
Khurram Dastgir Khan told the House that Pakistan was a party to all the four Geneva Conventions regarding humanitarian law. He said to fulfil the international obligations, a treaty implementation cell had been set up and these centres were being set up at provincial level.
Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada informed the House that there was a proposal under government consideration to lay astroturf for hockey in Swat. He said an amount of 20 million rupees had been proposed for this project in the next financial year PSDP.
The minister told the House that the players in the World Cup team were included after their fitness test. He said special attention was being paid for maintaining discipline among the players.
Minister for Textile Industry Abbas Khan Afridi told the House that 286 textile companies having textile and allied industry hade either been wound up or their names have been struck off under the provision of company’s ordinance, 1984 during the period from March 2013 till date. He said the main reason was energy crisis. He said the present government had resolved the issue of energy for industrial sector and as a result 292 new industries had been registered. He said the new textile policy announced by the government would help promote value-added exports of the country.