Minister urged to examine issues of export import… Financial Daily 22/8/23

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has invited the attention of the caretaker federal commerce and industries minister that imports and exports are like warp and weft of the economy and both go hand in hand and both deserve best attention of the government.
President of UNISAME said presently the imports are curtailed because of lack of foreign exchange. Banks are not releasing import documents and goods are lying in the ports incurring demurrage and detention.It is pertinent to note that even import documents of less than USD 5000 are not being released.
SME units are on the verge of collapse as they are sitting hand on hand due to the fact that they have exhausted their inventory. One second hand clothing exporter told us that he imports goods worth US D 5000 and alters them and re-exports them for US D 10000, he said we do value addition. He said we offered the bank to keep our deposit in bank for equivalent amount or keep invoice amount in USD and reimburse on due date to foreign shipper but they are not agreeing.
So many SME importers are in turmoil due to this and banks are releasing documents of only very essential priority goods. In fact there is along waiting list and one by one as the remittances or export proceeds come the reimbursement is scheduled.
Dr Gohar Ejaz must examine this fact and facilitate the importers only then his agenda of enhancing exports multifold can materialise.
Secondly he emphasized that the exporters need to be facilitated with affordable finance, export credit guarantee insurance, logistics and the Exim Bank of Pakistan will have to play an exemplary role.
Exports will not be enhanced unless and until exports of traditional goods is aggressively pursued to non traditional markets and non traditional goods to traditional markets. Merely by making statements nothing will happen.
The UNISAME Council members appreciated the enthusiasm of the commerce minister but asked him to sit with the entrepreneurs and listen to their woes and take remedial measures and fix and agenda jointly with State Bank of Pakistan as to how best the cargo of imported goods basically raw material can be cleared to boost exports.

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