Staff Reporter Islamabad
The Economic Coordination Committee on Wednesday considered a summary presented by the Ministry of Commerce regarding Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) for 2020-25 to enhance export competitiveness of Pakistan through a framework of pol-icy interventions. The proposed STPF 2020-25 also includes a monitoring and implementation mechanism.
The underlying rationale is to enhance exports as a national priority through collaborative and cohesive efforts.
While speaking on the occasion, the Finance Minister directed that the fac-tors related to a m arket-based realistic exchange rate must be incorporated under the proposed STPF 2020-25.
The Finance Minister further stressed to include specific measures for en-couraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and consolidation of fragmented export industry in Pakistan.
After due deliberations, the Committee decided to review the draft STPF 2020-25 after having another consultative meeting with all relevant stakeholders and pre-sent an updated policy framework be-fore the next ECC for approval.
Federal Minister for National Food Se-curity & Research Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for Privatization Mu-hammad Mian Soomro, Advisor to the PM on Institutional Reforms & Auster-ity Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Advisor to the PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Da-wood, SAPM on Finance and Revenue Dr. Waqar Masood, Federal Secretar-ies, Chairman FBR and other senior officers participated in the meeting. Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Reza Baqir joined the meeting through a video link.
The Ministry of National Food Secu-rity and Research (NFS&R) presented a summary regarding intervention price for the cotton crop for FY 2021-22.
The ECC had earlier constituted a Committee, under the chairm anship of the Minister for NFS&R, for present-ing recommendations to promote cot-ton production and bring price stability in the domestic market by monitoring local market prices.
The ECC deliberated over the recom-mendations by the Cotton Price Re-view Committee (CPRC) and it was decided that another consultative ses-sion would be held with all key stake-holders on board including M/O NFS&R, Finance Division and Com-merce to finalize the recommendations and present the revised summary be-fore Cabinet.
The Finance Division tabled a sum-mary to carry forward for FY 2021-22, the un-utilized cash component equal to Rs. 352 billion out of the Economic Stimulus Package amounting to Rs. 1240 billion (given in March 2020) to mitigate the adverse socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and to support the marginalized sec-tions of the society.
The funds were allocated under the Economic Stimulus Package for the entire duration of the Covid-19 pan-demic irrespective of the financial year.
Foregoing in view, the ECC re-validated the amount of Rs. 352 billion for the FY 2021-22 for meeting related expenditures including procurement of vaccine for Covid-19 (during the ongo-ing fourth wave) as the Federal Gov-ernment aims to vaccinate at least 85 million by December 2021.
