Caretaker Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Dr. Kausar Abdullah Malik, Tuesday, said that effective and diligent Phytosanitary certification process of Pakistan had won global acknowledgment and over 130 countries were honouring our clearance certificates.
He presiding over a meeting at Department of Plant Protection (DPP), said that DPP was playing an important role in the economy of the country by properly regulating imports and exports of agricultural commodities particularly implementation of phytosanitary requirements of Pakistan and other countries where agricultural commodities and products were being exported or imported from.
The minister expressed satisfaction over the digitization process which had enabled 100% efficiency of the quarantine facility for agricultural commodities and products at import and export stages and stated “DPP is shielding the plantation of the country through its quarantine facility so that no harmful insect or pest enters the country.”
He also informed the meeting that DPP had reached to an arrangement with the government regarding single window operations that would further reduce bottlenecks in the entire process and would significantly benefit trade in the country.
Due to the effective and efficient role of DPP, he mentioned that the confidence of the global community had increased in Pakistan and our clearance certificates were accepted in more than 130 countries.
Regarding revenue generation, the minister assured that he would take up the case with the finance ministry for diverting some of the revenue generated by the DPP for capacity building of the department.
Earlier, the minister was briefed about the roles and responsibilities of the department as well as infrastructural and administrative issues. The minister assured every possible assistance for resolving these issues.—APP