Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industries, Production and Investment Razak Dawood on Tuesday apprised the participants of Japanese delegation that the Auto Development Policy (2016-21) provided a uniformed and consistent Policy Framework for the development of Auto Industry in Pakistan which offered tremendous opportunities for the investment in this sector.
A delegation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) headed by its Chief Representative, Shigeki Furuta called on PM adviser to deliberate upon upgradation of Automobile and Textile Industries of Pakistan in order to promote trade and investment, said a press release issued by Ministry of Commerce here.
Razak Dawood also informed the delegation regarding enormous investment opportunities in technology up gradation of whole value chain, including ginning, spinning and knitting, of textile sector as the textile manufacturers are using very old technology which had made them uncompetitive in the global textile market.
For this, Japanese government should create a fund which can be used for the purchase of machinery by Pakistani textile manufactures for technology upgradation of textile sector, he added.
He further emphasized that Pakistan had upgraded its investment and business environment owing to its improved global ranking in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Index by 11 points. In this regard, Pakistan had also launched a programme, Regulatory Guillotine, to ease the business regulations.
Through this program 2 to 3 regulations were removed every month to ease out the business activities, the adviser highlighted. He also added that Pakistan had taken various effective steps to improve trade procedures by establishing better trade facilitation regime.
Chief representative of JICA, Shigeki Furuta ensured that JICA would provide assistance for economic development of Pakistan owing to the improvement of investment regime in the country.
Better business climate and supporting activities of Japanese Automobile Companies (Suzuki, Toyota and Honda) in Pakistan including promotion of their associated industry in Pakistan was deliberated in the meeting.
He said that JICA was going to assist the Automobile Industry in order to enhance its domestic production from existing 200,000 cars by introducing new safety and environment friendly features.
Moreover, JICA would also support in developing requisite regulations for the said new features and establishing inspection infrastructure for testing of new and used vehicles of insurance safety of the consumers, JICA chief highlighted.
