06:27
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LAHORE: Economists point out public and private sectors have failed to exploit the potential resources of the country, while bureaucracy and entrepreneurs are becoming rich at the expense of public.
They said Pakistan is the world’s largest producer of ghee. The country is second in chickpeas production, fourth in production of cotton, apricot, sugarcane, and milk, fifth in onions, sixth in date palm, seventh in mango, eighth in tangerines, mandarin orange and rice, ninth in wheat, and tenth in oranges.
Yet, they said the country at one time or the other faces shortages of all these commodities, as the bureaucracy has no control over hoarders, black marketers or smugglers. They said the dairy potential of the country remains unexploited as the planners promote higher growth by increasing the milking animals instead of making efforts to increase the productivity of the livestock to bring it at par with developed countries.
They said the mindset of the government to increase agriculture output by three to four percent every year would provide no relief to the consumers. This productivity, they added, is naturally achieved every year subject to favorable weather. The government makes no contingency plans to take measures that could minimise any adverse impact of the weather. Moreover, in view of huge unexploited agricultural potential the productivity should be increased by 15 per cent annually for next five years in order to take advantage of high global commodity rates, they opined.
The performance in the industrial production is equally pathetic. They said Pakistani textile industry consumes 16 million bales of cotton every year, out of which 85 per cent is exported. Thus, only 4 million cotton bales are consumed for local needs, while 12 million are used for exports. India, they added, on the other hand, consumes 28 million cotton bales every year out of which only 60 per cent is exported and 40 per cent consumed locally. The Indian’s exports consume 16.5 million bales and 12.5 million bales are consumed locally.
The Indians earn over $33 billion from textile exports as compared to $12.5 billion Pakistan earns from textile exports. If Pakistan’s textile industry matches the value addition attained by India, local textile exports would be over $25 billion.
They said the growth in automobile sector has also been lopsided. The car production in Pakistan, they added, increased five times from 33,000 in 1999 to 165,000 units now. The deletion of auto components has remained almost stagnant. The foreign exchange saving, they said, is only 30 per cent even in vehicles where the localisation of parts has reached 70 per cent. They said 30 per cent imported parts of the vehicle add 70 per cent cost to the car. They said for low deletion models the imported component is 80 to 85 per cent.
This, they added, explains one of the reasons for high import bill. It looks strange that the government is providing undue protection to such industries at the expense of consumers. They should be asked to either export certain percentage of production and part away from protection.
The high sugarcane production is a good omen for the Pakistani consumers, they said, regretting however that the payments of farmers are withheld due to lack of government writ. They said cement industry has always operated on low capacity utilisation to maintain high cement rates. Currently, this sector is manipulating local cement rates on the strength of high export rates they are fetching from Afghanistan, India and Middle East.
They said Pakistan is the world’s largest producer of ghee. The country is second in chickpeas production, fourth in production of cotton, apricot, sugarcane, and milk, fifth in onions, sixth in date palm, seventh in mango, eighth in tangerines, mandarin orange and rice, ninth in wheat, and tenth in oranges.
Yet, they said the country at one time or the other faces shortages of all these commodities, as the bureaucracy has no control over hoarders, black marketers or smugglers. They said the dairy potential of the country remains unexploited as the planners promote higher growth by increasing the milking animals instead of making efforts to increase the productivity of the livestock to bring it at par with developed countries.
They said the mindset of the government to increase agriculture output by three to four percent every year would provide no relief to the consumers. This productivity, they added, is naturally achieved every year subject to favorable weather. The government makes no contingency plans to take measures that could minimise any adverse impact of the weather. Moreover, in view of huge unexploited agricultural potential the productivity should be increased by 15 per cent annually for next five years in order to take advantage of high global commodity rates, they opined.
The performance in the industrial production is equally pathetic. They said Pakistani textile industry consumes 16 million bales of cotton every year, out of which 85 per cent is exported. Thus, only 4 million cotton bales are consumed for local needs, while 12 million are used for exports. India, they added, on the other hand, consumes 28 million cotton bales every year out of which only 60 per cent is exported and 40 per cent consumed locally. The Indian’s exports consume 16.5 million bales and 12.5 million bales are consumed locally.
The Indians earn over $33 billion from textile exports as compared to $12.5 billion Pakistan earns from textile exports. If Pakistan’s textile industry matches the value addition attained by India, local textile exports would be over $25 billion.
They said the growth in automobile sector has also been lopsided. The car production in Pakistan, they added, increased five times from 33,000 in 1999 to 165,000 units now. The deletion of auto components has remained almost stagnant. The foreign exchange saving, they said, is only 30 per cent even in vehicles where the localisation of parts has reached 70 per cent. They said 30 per cent imported parts of the vehicle add 70 per cent cost to the car. They said for low deletion models the imported component is 80 to 85 per cent.
This, they added, explains one of the reasons for high import bill. It looks strange that the government is providing undue protection to such industries at the expense of consumers. They should be asked to either export certain percentage of production and part away from protection.
The high sugarcane production is a good omen for the Pakistani consumers, they said, regretting however that the payments of farmers are withheld due to lack of government writ. They said cement industry has always operated on low capacity utilisation to maintain high cement rates. Currently, this sector is manipulating local cement rates on the strength of high export rates they are fetching from Afghanistan, India and Middle East.
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