KARACHI: Pakistan, impressed with Malaysia’s achievement in exporting its services industry is keen to learn from it, ways to enhance its own services sector especially for the export market, a top Pakistani trade official said.

Usman Hasan, the director-general of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), also called on Malaysian investors to invest in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Pakistan’s Sindh province as well as exploit fully the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

Malaysia’s position as the sixth largest exporter of services to Asian, African and Arab countries, speaks volume of its impressive achievements in the sector, he told a group of visiting Malaysian journalists.

Towards this end, he said the Pakistani government would seek help from Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Providing figures and data from 2007 which showed the export value of Malaysia’s services sector at US$28.27 billion, he said that this, was a 0.55 per cent share of the world market.

In contrast, Pakistan occupied 13th position with an export value of US$3.758 billion which was 0.11 per cent of the world market.

Citing how Pakistan had adopted Malaysia’s move to allocate funds to assist entrepreneurs in the services sector, he said that the country had for the first time, allocated 2 billion rupees (about US$24.03 million) to help finance local industries venture into the services sector.

Between June and July this year, Pakistan’s export of services recorded a 12.6 per cent growth to US$4.043 billion from US$3.589 billion last year.

Hasan said Pakistan’s largest export of services was in the transportation sector, which constituted US$1.283 billion of the total services value from June-July 2009.

Logistics totalled US$912 million during the two-month period, travel (US$222 million), communication services (US$196 million), and computer and information services (US$184), he highlighted.

“The TDAP will be writing to the Malaysian International Trade and Industry Ministry to seek assistance, especially in the area of tendering, undertaking feasibility studies on upcoming projects and marketing, in efforts to enhance exports in the services sector,” he said.

Hasan also expressed the hope that Malaysian investors would take up the offer by Pakistan to invest in the country’s EEZ covering 16 hectares.

It was set up by the Sindh provincial government for value adding to its manufacture of primary products and rebranding and marketing it for the international market.

Currently, the Chinese and Japanese have been investing in an area allocated to them in the EEZ, he said.

He said Malaysian investors in the EEZ could assist Pakistan in value-adding for the country’s main exports such as fish, rice, vegetables and fruits, textiles and leather products.

“Malaysian investors having the experience in downstream industries could transfer their technology and expertise to Pakistan,” he said. This would be in line with Pakistan’s vision in broadening the base of the country’s exports by upgrading the export potential in products where the country had a competitive advantage.

For the 2008-2009 period, Pakistan’s export value dropped to about US$17.782 billion from US$19.052 billion in 2007-2008, with the main exports being agriculture and food products, engineering goods and other manufacturing items. Touching on the Malaysia-Pakistan FTA , Hasan said the Malaysian business sector had not taken advantage of the trade pact.

The FTA inked on November 2007 and which came into effect early last year, would ultimately see the abolishment of import tariffs in many agricultural and manufacturing products by 2012 and special incentives for Malaysian companies in Pakistan.

Under the deal, Malaysia will eliminate import duties by 2012 on 77.3 percent of imports from Pakistan. It would in turn will abolish duties on agricultural and industrial imports from Malaysia.

He also said that Malaysian companies could check on the status of Pakistani companies they want to go into business with, by referring to the TDAP so as to ensure they were not taken for a ride. — Bernama