ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce on Friday unveiled the National Priority Sectors Export Strategy (NPSES), with a focus on 10 priority sectors to achieve growth in exports.

The strategy is part of the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2020-25, approved in November last year and identified 18 priority sectors with guidelines to develop sector-specific policy measures to promote their exports.

The NPSES focuses on 10 of the 18 STPF priority sectors, including engineering goods, leather, processed food and beverages, fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, pharmaceuticals, software development and services, business process outsourcing, logistics and institutional coordination.

The individual export policies are developed through the guidance of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and in close collaboration with industry leaders. The NPSES aims to enable and sustain a new cycle of export growth for Pakistan, exploiting its vast untapped potential for trade and investment development.

According to the documents, the NPSES is geared towards strengthening the competitiveness of both emerging and established export sectors. It lays out a prioritised five-year action-oriented framework and acknowledges that things need to be done differently to increase trade’s contribution to economic development.

The policy will improve the business environment for all Pakistani enterprises. It will create the conditions for diversification by strengthening emerging sectors. Without logistics and institutional alignment, these ambitions will only stay on paper, so these areas have been brought to the highest level of priority as key enablers for sector growth.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is working with the government of Pakistan with financial support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK government, through the Revenue Mobilisation, Investment and Trade Programme (ReMIT) to support the development of the NPSES.

Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar said that government has taken a series of initiatives to promote exports to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth, poverty reduction and improvement in the living standard of the people. “We will work with all stakeholders to use the opportunities that the NPSES provides in creating jobs and new opportunities for Pakistan,” he said.

British Acting High Commissioner Andrew Dalgleish said the FCDO was proud to support programmes like the ReMIT that focused on supporting Pakistan to strengthen institutional capacity for trade policy formulation and address trade barriers.

ITC Chief Trade Facilitation and Policy for Business Dr Mohammad Saeed said that driven by quality and innovation, the strategy and attendant work plan would strengthen the international presence of Pakistani products from the priority sectors.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2022