The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called the government for promoting exports of high tech engineering goods as they could strengthen and widen national export base. “Measures need to be taken immediately on war footing to support and save our engineering industry”, ICCI President Yassar Sakhi Butt of said in a statement here on Wednesday. He said the Government should continue tariff rationalisation to provide level playing field to local engineering industry and to extend attractive export financing scheme and long-term financing facility to encourage additional investment. He was analysing the export performance of the engineering industry during the last four years which shows that the annual export of engineering goods were in the range of average $ 200 million. The ICCI President said that Pakistani engineering products are sold at a very low price and the buyers earn huge profits after some value addition. “Thus, it is the right time to increase country’s exports of high value addition engineering goods that would help the Government to reduce dependence on foreign countries for equipments and ultimately reduce the trade deficit which needs to be turned around towards a win-win situation”, he maintained. He said that the local engineering products have great demand in Turkey, Malaysia, Egypt, Germany, the US, Canada, Australia, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia but the successive governments during the past two decades have failed to accord priority to this vital sector, and export of engineering and capital goods could not be developed on sustainable basis. Yassar Sakhi Butt said the Government should take urgent measures to reduce the cost of doing business and promote exports of engineering goods. He also proposed that Pakistan should also avail expertise of China and Japan for production of value added engineering goods.
