Exports to touch $15 billion this year: EPB DG

Staff Report

MULTAN: The country’s exports will touch the $15 billion mark this year as the European Union has released the flexibility quota of textile after a suspension of two years, Naveed Ikram, director general, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), said here Tuesday.

“We exported goods worth $11.3 billion against a target of $10.2 billion last year despite of worldwide crisis,” Mr Ikram said while addressing a luncheon hosted by Khawaja Muhammad Jalaluddin Roomi, chairman, All Pakistan Bedsheet and Upholstry manufacturers Association (APBUMA). He said that export of untraditional items including auto parts has increased by 114 percent, while the export of mango and other fruits increased 20 percent. “The present regime is providing all facilities to the exporters but some exporters are unable to avail these facilities due to lack of knowledge and awareness,” he said. Mr Ikram added that country’s commercial attachés and consulars are performing their duties honestly to explore new buyers/markets for Pakistani goods. The EPB has also planned to set up warehouses, and display centres in different countries of the world to attract buyers, he added.

Further, he said that there is a great demand of Pakistani goods abroad and foreigners prefer to buy Pakistani goods. “Our Bastmati rice is very popular in Gulf states and European countries, and our mango is the best quality one,” he said.

Electrocuted electrician dies in hospital: Electrician Muhammad Ashraf of the Textile Mills Colony in Muzaffarabad (Multan) died in the emergency ward of the Nishtar Hospital on Tuesday because doctors were on a strike.

The strike was called by Multan’s Pakistan Medical Association in protest against the attitude of the hospital’s medical superintendent.

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