China has given Pakistan additional access to its market: Dawood

KARACHI: Prime Minister’s Adviser for Trade and Industry Abdul Razzak Dawood on Saturday said the government is working to hammer out national industrial and tariff policies, ARY News reported.

Dawood while talking to industrialists in Karachi, said that China has granted Pakistan an additional access to its market. “We are working to slash unnecessary imports and increase exports”.

He said unnecessary items will be removed from shelves of super markets and precious foreign exchange will not be spent on such imports.

The adviser said the government has taken effective steps to facilitate business in mini budget, which will be approved in next seven day.

The government has given special attention in budget on 10 to 15 sectors of the economy, he said. After passage of the budget the government will hammer out the national tarriff policy.

Dawood also highlighted the need of the national industrial policy. He said he will soon visit the chambers of commerce and industries across the country to (get feedback) to finalize the national industrial policy.

Dawood called iron and steel as the backbone of the economy and expressed his pleasure that the steel production in the country has reached to annual one million tonnes.

He said Pakistan needs six million tonnes of steel in a year adding that the country is spending US$ two billion on steel import.

The adviser said that Pakistan facing current account deficit, budget and trade deficit and the government is taking steps to address these deficits on priority basis.