How to meet the export target or reduce imports to achieve the target of foreign exchange reserves? In addressing the import requirements for USD 60 billion exports, let me add my two-bit to the vast amounts of suggestions existing in the literature.

The PC needs to reorient the domestic supply chain towards competitively priced domestic inputs needed for manufactured exports, e.g., energy, raw cotton and massive increase in oil seeds output, the last two again face embedded constraints of group B).

Secondly, to repeat the already well-known, is the role of ‘improved productivity’ in getting the most from per unit of imports. This needs innovation, training of labour and hand holding by the MOI and Ministry of Labour (another constraint! The second one falls under the provincial jurisdiction).

Dissecting Uraan Pakistan—I

Critics citing Japan, China, BD, and Vietnam may say that we should be less worried about raising cotton output domestically and more about skilled labour, female labour force participation, technology, and innovation to raise productivity, of the textile sector.

At a macro level, a significant reduction in wasteful federal and provincial government expenditure is essential to dilute its impact on BOT.

Moving on to the second pillar of the Triple-S approach, ‘Strategic Intervention’ within exports, we have a host of areas to choose from: Manufacturing, Minerals, Agriculture, Information Technology and Manpower Export. Again, PC will be spreading itself too thin if it intervenes in all the above and ends up achieving none of the targets. Since minerals is G2G prerogative, it makes sense not to regard it as a candidate for PC’s strategic intervention except putting its symbolic signature on PC-1.

Manpower export is demand driven and given skill shortage in the country, a conscientious effort to intervene in it is a dilemma. The benefit of increasing remittances has to be weighed by cost of losing semi-skilled and skilled/experienced manpower and its impact on overall productivity, which is on a stagnant/downward trend........

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