Efforts are on to develop a long term National Engineering Exports Development Strategy (NEEDS) to promote engineering goods industry in line with international standards and for this purpose 22 sector-specific Working Groups have been constituted to work with respective sub-sectors for finalizing a draft of NEEDS, which will be submitted to the government for approval.

This was said by Asad Elahi, Chief Executive Officer of Engineering Development Board while giving a detailed presentation at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry about the potential of engineering industry.

He said 16 African countries are a good market for Pakistani engineering products due to similar climatic conditions and Pakistani entrepreneurs should accelerate their efforts to tap this huge market of US$ 165 billion. 

He said EDB has prepared a draft report on “Export Marketing Plan” for 5 years targeting the unexplored regions/countries of Africa, South Asia, Middle East & Latin America, which will help businessmen in exploring and exploiting business potential in these countries.
Asad Elahi said EDB is working with FBR for reviewing SROs on customs duty, sales tax, withholding tax and federal excise duty for making them user friendly so that engineering sector could be further facilitated in its forward march.

He said EDB is engaged to enhance capacity building of engineering industry, improve competitiveness of engineering products, reduce cost of inputs and encourage local production & consumption of locally manufactured goods. EDB, in consultation with stakeholders, has also taken policy initiatives to make business friendly policies for steel, foundry, auto and electronic industries, he added. 

In his welcome address, Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that to promote engineering and other industries, government should take urgent measures to reduce the cost of doing business.

He said that frequent hike in electricity, gas & POL products along with high mark up have make Pakistani products very uncompetitive in international markets and government should address these issues on priority for sustainable growth of industry.

Zahid Maqbool said European Union countries are earning US$ 360 billion, Latin American countries US$ 375 billion, African countries US$ 152 billion and India US$ 35 billion from the export of engineering goods whereas Pakistan’s share in the overall global trade for the engineering goods stands at just 0.013 percent, which is very disappointing.

He said government should establish more technical education and vocational training institutes in the country for producing technical manpower and also set up technical incubator centers for better promotion of engineering industry. 

He said share of engineering goods in world trade is 65 percent and Pakistan should focus on promoting engineering industry instead of relying on textile exports which has only 5 percent share in global trade.