http://www.dawn.com/2003/09/20/ebr1.htm
All credit must go to Musharraf, and his financial experts, chiefly Shaukat Aziz.
:)Alhamdulilah!
great news 
lets hope pakistan continues on this road of prosperity!
Re: Pakistan no more vulnerable: Moody’s: Index improves to 38pc
Indeed. :k:
Fantastic news...May the road to prosperity continue. Where are all the Pakistan haters now?? :)
Promising trends in the economy
http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/ed.htm#1
The performance of foreign trade in the first quarter of the current financial year points to a highly promising trend. The rate of increase in exports at nearly 15 per cent during the first three months is much higher than the target of nearly 10 per cent fixed for the whole year.
Still more encouraging is the fact that the trade deficit has narrowed by nearly 27 per cent as compared to what it was in the same period last year at a time when imports had grown at a much faster rate of 12 per cent in the first three months against the annual target of nearly six per cent. Another positive aspect of the three-month trade performance is that the income from exports during the period covered over 95 per cent of the import bill against 91 per cent recorded for the whole of 2002-03.
Clearly, the turnaround witnessed in foreign trade during the last year appears to be not only genuine but also sustainable. What is happening at the moment perhaps is that the capacities which had remained idle over the last several years are being revived in response to the increased market access provided for our textile goods by the rich countries, especially the EU.
The downward revision in domestic rates of bank borrowing, a stable exchange rate, a low level of inflation and the record foreign exchange reserves have provided the needed thrust for the economy to build on the advantages accruing to the country since 9/11. If sustained, the trend could attract investment and widen employment opportunities.
In the absence of further details about this encouraging trend, it is not possible to make a more confident assessment of the prospects of the leading export and import items and their geographical directions. Last year the textile sector had fetched nearly eight billion dollars out of total export receipts of $11 billion, indicating two things: We have started taking advantage of the increased access allowed to our textile goods by the EU since the third quarter of 2001-02 and; our economy has not yet come out of its excessive dependence on a single crop (cotton).
On the import front, machinery imports increased by 75 per cent last year but edible oil, POL products and crude oil still made up over 25 per cent of the total import bill. We enjoy a comparative advantage in textile goods because we are perhaps the third in ranking among cotton producing countries.
We must exploit this advantage more fully and aim for an export target of at least $15-$20 billion in textile goods in the next five to seven years by putting more stress on value addition, keeping in view, at the same time, the kind of competition we will be facing in the world market after quotas are abolished in 2005.
This would need a lot of investment both in terms of finances and technology, which perhaps can be ensured by prospecting for foreign investment. Simultaneously, we must also try to guard against the risks involved in our economy’s heavy dependence on cotton by diversifying our exports.
There are many options that must be considered in this respect. Besides, we do enjoy another comparative advantage, and that is our geographical location - situated as we are right in the middle of trade routes going from east to west and north to south. This advantage could be put to work for our economy by offering trans-shipment facilities to the exporters and importers of Central Asia, the Middle East, South-East Asia and Africa.