ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that to achieve a constant growth in the textile sector, Pakistan was investing in energy sector.
In an interview with an European Newspaper (New Europe), Minister said that Pakistan’s exports has been making their way through international markets including USA and EU since many decades.
To a question, Minister said that USA has traditionally been Pakistan’s single largest export market and there will be no extraordinary changes now.
“At the moment, we are analysing the situation we would like to be engaged in. Particularly, Pakistan is exporting many goods that are no longer produced in the US, particularly textiles”, he said.
However he said that since 2014 the EU became a major partner and gave Pakistan the GSP+ status. “We wanted the Americans to give us the same status, but apparently both Bush and Obama’s administrations thought that Congress and the Senate would not agree to such concessions,” he explained.
To another question, minister said that Chinese investment has been coming to us in different areas, including in solar and green energy.
“Although, it is not just the Chinese who invest in our country. Pakistan is also financing from its own resources three major natural gas fields”, he added.
Dastagir said Pakistan has the whole chain of production, including cultivating cotton and sending it up to the cloth factories. “We produce clothes and textiles without relying on outside aid. We export across the whole region”, he added.
To a question regarding Kashmir issue, Dastagir said that people are suffering there (Indian occupied Kashmir) , they are being blinded and they are being killed.
He emphasized Europe is a standard bearer of human rights, of the rights of minorities. “
Dastagir urged Europe that it must see the Indian occupied Kashmir situation also as an issue of human suffering and try to do whatever it can to protect people of Indian occupied Kashmir.
