I N T E R N AT I O N A

L
ECON 6O
1 2M I C S

COMPARISON OF EXPORTS OF
PAKISTAN WITH SAARC
COUNTRIES
Presented By ;
Baheeja Tariq [1808025]
Farah Hassan [1808027]
Agenda I N T E R N AT I O N A L
ECONOMICS
What this present covers; 612

01 Introduction 04 Conclusion

02 Analysis of Pakistan 05 Recommendations – The way Forward

03 Analysis of SAARC Countries 06 References

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INTRODUCTION
What are Exports?
• Exports provide an interface into how globally competitive a country is.
• The overall stability of an economy depends on the import and export of the nation. Exports are
crucial to every economy as they broaden the horizon for goods and market, allowing more buyers
from other countries of the world.

What Exports do?

In general, exports facilitate
• The exploitation of economies of scale.
• Allow resource allocation according to comparative advantage.
• Improve foreign exchange reserves position and guarantee easy financing of import.
• Increase efficiency and productivity through competition.
• Increase employment and allow for knowledge spill-overs that will encourage domestic innovation.

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 Cont.

The economy of Pakistan (In terms of Trade)

• No economy can remain stable and maintain its development without balanced trade ratio.
• The trade imbalances are high if one nation has more imports than exports, inhibiting improvement and growth of the economy.
• Pakistan, surprisingly, has yearly less exports as compared to countries who are not as labour extensive as pakistan.
• For the previous five years, pakistan has had more goods imported than exported.
• The pattern of trade has changed substantially in response to trade reform measures and pakistan has moved from primary
products to fully finished manufactured goods.
• But, overall export performance is not very promising and is showing a declining trend.

SAARC Countries (In terms of Trade)

• South Asia has lagged behind other regions in creating a regional trade grouping.
• The formation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985 is a step towards this direction.
• However, for economic and political reasons, SAARC has made relatively slow progress on expanding intraregional trade.
• The low levels of inter-regional trade reflects a lack of awareness of business opportunities because of the absence of a suitable
trade promotion infrastructure.

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 Recent Updates, regarding Exports in Pakistan

Pakistan’s exports were recorded at $9.468 billion.

Posting a 17.5% growth in October, 2021 17.5%

The export target for Oct 2021 was $2.6 billion. During the July-Oct 2021 period, Pakistan’s
exports grew by 25pc to $9.468 billion, compared to $7.576 billion during the same period last
year.

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 ANALYSIS OF
PAKISTAN
Mainly Pakistan’s Export declined since 2014
• Generally, Pakistan’s export earnings have declined since 2014. Pakistan’s exports performance has remained
unimpressive even before 2014.
• While the recent decline in exports has been attributed to global developments. Pakistan’s stagnant exports
demand serious reforms which have been developed several times but never implemented seriously.

Comparison With Other Developing Countries

• In Pakistan, despite economic liberalisation and privatisation & introduction of various incentives packages,
export performance has remained poor in comparison to other countries.
• In fact, Pakistan’s exports have continued to lag behind other developing countries over the last several years.
• A comparison of Pakistan’s exports with other developing countries clearly points out the weaknesses of the
trade regime followed in Pakistan in the last few decades.

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 CONT.
Factors affecting exports in Pakistan
• The many factors that have been effecting the exports;

Lack of investments.
Low productivity.
Obsolete machinery.
High cost of production.
Ignorant government.
• Improper policies that do not cater to long term export.

Exports to GDP Ratio

The most disturbing trend is the consistent fall in exports to GDP ratio in Pakistan as compared
with other developing countries.
• In 2014-15 exports to GDP ratio was hardly 10.95 %.

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Pakistan & SAARC
Pakistan’s Trade within SAARC

  Exports From Pakistan Imports to Pakistan Pakistan's Trade within SAARC

  2010 2014 2015 2010 2014 2015
• The share of exports to South Asia is 14% of Pakistan’s total
Afghanistan 1684.7 1879.1 1722.2 138.4 392.2 390.4
exports.
Bangladesh 636.8 687.6 700.6 73.9 60.7 60.3 • Afghanistan leads this group with almost 57% of Pakistani
exports within region is going to Afghanistan, followed by
Bhutan 0 0 0 0.02 0.01 2.75
Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.
India 275.0 392.2 312.3 1559.9 2104.8 1669..3 • In terms of overall South Asian exports to the world Pakistan
Nepal 0.72 0.84 2.28 1.35 0.95 0.46 is ranked at number three.
• Almost 80% is contributed by India followed by Bangladesh
Maldives 3.95 8.35 7.58 0.17 0.004 2.93
and Pakistan with a share of 10% and 7% respectively.
Sri lanka 283.9 266.2 260.0 53.4 63.0 72.3 • While India is increasing its world market share for Pakistan
Total 2885.0 3234.3 3005.0 1827.1 2621.6 2198.3 this share is declining.

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Analysis of SAARC Countries
As of October, 2021

Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan

$870 million $20 billion $860 million

(+132% from last period) +24.29% from last period) (+6.5% from last period)

Afghanistan have a 12.87% partner There has been a total export Bhutan mostly exports electricity
share with pakistan, with usd growth rate of 81% between the to India (around 50 percent of total
$1,103 million in trade. years of 2009 to 2013. exports).

They mainly export coal, dried The major exports of bangladesh Specializing in mineral ore and
fruits like figs and grapes, carpets, are Garments, jute, leather goods, vegetable oil. Their main export
wheat and other fresh fruits. shrimp and tea. partners are india, hong kong and
bangladesh.

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 Continued
As of October, 2021
India
$233.54 billion
(+55.13% from last period)
India is key exporter of petroleum
products, engineering goods, jewellery,
agriculture and textile products.
India’s major trading partners are uae,
us, singapore and china.
Maldives
$28 million
(+158% from last period)
Maldives economy is based
majorly on tourism and fishing, the
scenic beauty attracting people
from all over the world and
contributing to the growing
economy.
Sri Lanka
$88.8 million
(+19.3% from last period)
Sri lanka produces garment and it is
one of its main exports, alongside
textile, tea, spices, coconut products
and fish.
Their exports mainly reach the
destinations such as italy, belgium,
germany, and the united kingdom.
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 Continued
As of October, 2021

Intra SAARC Trade (as % of Total Exports)

Nepal   1990 1995 2000 2005 2008

$197.4 billion
 Afghanistan Exports - - - - 66.8
 Bangladesh Exports 2.4 2.4 1.5 2.9 4.9
(+8.9% from last period)  Bhutan Exports 99.4 99.6 99.2 92.9 98.8

Nepal is rich in its culture and known for its  India Exports 3.2 5.5 4.4 5.4 5.6
domestically produced carpets and textile.  Maldives Exports - 22.6 18.1 13.0 11.1
 Nepal Exports - 12.2 45.2 53.8 -
India, Bangladesh, Germany and US are main
 Pakistan Exports 4.0 3.4 4.5 11.2 12.1
import partners.
 Srilanka Exports 3.8 4.4 11.3 16.5 12.7

Source: Statistical Year Book of the Asia and the Pacific

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Conclusion
Challenges & Factors hindering trade;

Challenges faced by Pakistan in order to Some of the many factors hindering trade In
increase Exports are how to ; Pakistan are;

• Improve its growth • outdated and worn out machinery

• Attract more FDI • Low productivity

• Skill formation • Below par governance

• Build technological capability and enlarge and • High cost of production

diversify exports.
• Low wages and hence

• Lower motivation of labour to work.

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Cont.
What we achieved yet?
While increasing world population and growing global prosperity is fuelling the demand for
new products.

Despite liberalisation of its trade regime, Pakistan has not fully benefitted from opportunities
emanating from the growth in international trade during the past decade.

A chance to acquire advantage

Relocation of industries from developed to developing countries in the wake of global
restructuring and increasing outsourcing opportunities from developed countries offer greater
opportunities for Pakistani exporters.

Given our inherent textile base, Pakistan’s exporters have a strong chance to acquire
competitive advantage by importing raw material not available locally or through joint venture
agreements with businessmen of the countries having raw material.
 Policy Recommendation
• In a rapidly changing international environment, skilled manpower; along with science and
technology capabilities are extremely important for sustaining development momentum.
• Significant and consistent commitment in terms of public investment in relevant technical
and general education, as well as strengthening of research and development activities is very
critical to bolster our export competitiveness.
• Pakistan needs to attach high priority to human resource development.

• More efforts should be towards improving the quality of education, on-the-job training, skill
up-gradation and dissemination of new knowledge and techniques. This will help in
achieving high value addition and low unit labour cost.
• To prepare the country to face emerging challenges, the development of science and
technology and its linkage with industry has to be at the top of our trade and industrial vision
for the future.

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 Policy Recommendation
• Labour productivity is an important driver of market diversification at the firm level.
Development of human resources with the required abilities can help to improve productivity and
their ability to diversify their exports in international markets.
• The Saarc countries have effected reduction in tariff levels; it can be reduced even further to
increase the benefits of the trade bloc in the near future.
• Adequate steps could also be implemented to attract more fdi into the region from other sources
by strengthening the infrastructural facilities and building a strong supply chain network.
• As there is a positive relation between the bilateral trade agreement and bilateral exports flows in
the Saarc region, the creation of bilateral agreements in the region must be encouraged.
• Finally, strengthening of economic relations can be used to reinforce improving political relations
in the region, for instance, the relations between India and Pakistan, as economic ties could help
to improve the political relations between the two which could further intensify the growth
momentum in these economies.

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References
Pakistan trade statistic | wits https://wits.worldbank.org/countryprofile/en/pak
Saarc: achievement and challenges journal article by Ma Jiali.
1. Exports of goods and services – pakistan https://data.worldbank.org/
Thank you! I N T E R N AT I O N A L
ECONOMICS
612
Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions.

INT. ECO Presented to; Presented by;

FINAL TERM PAPER Prof. Dr Abdul Waheed Farah Hassan & Baheeja Tariq