“Alhamdulillah (Thanks God), Pakistan’s export for April 2021 stood at USD 2.191 billion. This is the first time since 2011 that our monthly exports have crossed the 2-billion mark for seven consecutive months, tweeted Dawood through his official account on Sunday.
The export growth of 129 per cent over April 2020 cannot be taken into account due to lockdown last year, he added.
Alhamdulillah, Pakistan’s export for April 2021 stood at USD 2.191 billion. This is the first time since 2011 that our monthly exports have crossed the 2-billion mark for 7 consecutive months. The export growth of 129% over
— Abdul Razak Dawood (@razak_dawood) May 2, 2021
He stated that exports for July-April 2021 grew by 13 per cent to $20.879 billion as compared to $18.408 billion during the same period last year.
“Our exporters deserve full credit for making this possible under testing global conditions,” said Dawood.
Our exporters deserve full credit for making this possible under testing global conditions.@aliya_hamza #Pakistan #exports
— Abdul Razak Dawood (@razak_dawood) May 2, 2021
According to statistics released by International Trade Centre’s Trademap.org, Pakistan reported greater imports of textile machinery in 2003 as compared to imports by Vietnam and Bangladesh. The result of this boost in textile machinery imports could be witnessed in the subsequent years when Pakistan’s exports went back on the right growth trajectory.
In 2019, imports of textile machinery into Pakistan were lower than those into Vietnam and Bangladesh which was a welcome change. However, to enhance their global competitiveness and bolster exports in the long run, Pakistani exporters need to focus on capacity and product upgradation.
The rapid spread of Covid19 and the strict measures taken by the governments to quell it have had severe consequences for the major world economies and Pakistan was no exception. A report by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), COVID-19 outbreak had affected the flows of containers from the country to the lowest level of approximately 12,000 in April last year. However, there has been a gradual improvement in the container shipment from the country since then.
Read More: Pakistan’s textile exports grow 30.4pc in March 2021
PM Khan has always acknowledged the critical role of exports in the national economy and is therefore, committed to extend all possible facilitation to the exporters and remove any hurdles that might come in the way of enhancing the country’s exports. Under the ‘Make in Pakistan’ policy that was introduced by the government to promote export-oriented industrialization in the country, Duty Drawback rates for around eight sectors were revised upwards by the FBR. More than 434,000 claims were disposed of and approximately 7800 exporters have benefited from this initiative. A system of refunds was also streamlined by the current government to resolve liquidity issues of the exporters and industrialists.
Export facilitation measures resulted in an increase in the number of exports Goods Declarations (GDs) from 71,190 in July 2020 to 79,756 in Dec 2020. Though the current upward trend in exports is encouraging, this momentum can only be maintained through increased focus on the products and geographical diversification.