Reforms necessary for the development of dairy sectors in Pakistan

Lahore: Stakeholders from public sector, private sector and civil society discussed policy recommendations and domestic regulatory reform for enhancing competitiveness and export potential of Livestock and Dairy sectors of Pakistan. The Public private dialogue (PPD) on ‘’Enhancing Competitiveness and Export Potential of Livestock and Dairy Sector was organized under the European Union funded Trade Related Technical Assistance(TRTA II)programme.

The Component 1 of the TRTA II programme is about trade policy capacity building and is implemented by the ITC. A fifteen member public private dialogue steering committee (PPDSC) constituted under the Component 1 of the TRTAII programme selected trade in Livestock and Dairy sector for public private consultation earlier this year so that a coherent and inclusive policy is debated and put in place for Pakistan. ITC along with Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development (PITAD) have been functioning as the secretariat of the PPDSC.

Pakistan is an agricultural country and can greatly enhance exports in the identified sectors by putting in place concrete policies for enhancing competitiveness and export potential in livestock and dairy product; maintained the Additional Secretary Ministry of Commerce.
He added that after the devolution of agriculture and livestock to the provinces, there is a need for the Ministry of Commerce to work together with provincial livestock departments and other stakeholders to introduce domestic regulatory reforms for enhancing exports of the two sectors. He appreciated the efforts of ITC and PITAD for organizing a PPD on such important aspect of trade policy.

The technical session was undertaken wherein policy recommendation for domestic regulatory reform from two separate studies on livestock and dairy sectors conducted for the PPD were presented before the invited stakeholders.

The technical session was chaired by Additional Secretary Ministry of Commerce Fazal Abbas Mekan. Panel discussants from relevant private sector Associations, Chambers of Commerce and Government organizations expressed their views on the possible reform process.
Open house discussions among the invited participants also took place in which representative of Federal Government Ministries, implementing agencies, provincial departments, Chambers of Commerce, trade associations, individual firms, independent research organizations and Academia discussed the issues being faced by the selected sectors and possible policy reform to overcome them.

The public private dialogue will result into concrete policy proposals for Enhancing competitiveness and export potential in identified sectors, which would be formally submitted to the federal and provincial governments for potential implementation.