20000208

Apcea hails

Qamar Baig's

appointment

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: The All Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (Apcea) has welcomed the appointment of Mirza Qamar Baig as Secretary, Ministry of Commerce.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Apcea Chairman Mian Naeem Omer, said that the new Commerce Secretary is an experienced and well versed in the affairs of commerce. During his earlier tenure as vice Chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Mirza Qamar Baig had streamlined the working and procedure of the EPB and under his able guidance the exports of the country recorded substantial increase in both the volume and value.

Congratulating the new Commerce Secretary the Apcea chairman expressed hope that the problems of exports and commerce would be solved satisfactorily and all the hurdles and procedural bottlenecks would be removed in the way of exports of the country.

He said exporters were confronted with acute liquidity crunch because of the delays in payment of sales tax refund. Yet another big hurdle in exports was the non-availability of export refinance Part-I to small and medium exporters, he added.

The Apcea chairman was optimistic that the new commerce secretary would remove all irritants to boost exports.