With Iran, export was $153.1 million and import $153.5 million. Export and Import volume with Turkey remained $455.8 million and $174.6 million, respectively. With Bangladesh, export volume remained $633.7 million and import at $65 million for 2011-12. Pakistan's export and import volumes with Indonesia remained at $217.1 million and $1161.4 million, respectively during the same period.
The country's export volume remained at $226.1 million with Malaysia during the same period while import remained at $2344.6 million. Pakistan's export and import volume with Egypt remained at $220 million and $163.2 million, respectively. With Nigeria, the domestic export and import volumes remained at $27.2 million and US $3.4 million, respectively during the same period.
The Minister said that the government had not fixed trade volume target for 2012 with D-8 forum, adding that Pakistan had proposed the establishment of a sub-committee of experts to identify tariffs and non-tariffs barriers and to explore the possibility of mutual recognition agreement among them. This will be helpful in addressing the issue of non tariff barriers, he said.
He said that the Ministry of Commerce has been mandated, inter alia, to promote Pakistan's trade with other countries and to ensure optimum market access opportunities for our core export products in global markets. With a view to explore new markets for Pakistani products, Ministry of Commerce has been pursuing a policy of enhanced trade with Asian and African regions. As a result, considerable increase in trade with these regions has been recorded in last three years. "Our exports to Asian region, which stood at $8.9 billion in 2009-10, increased to $11.5 billion in 2011-12. Similarly, Pakistan's exports to Africa also maintained a growing trend, increasing from $1.4 billion in 2009-10 to $1.7 billion in 2011-12."
During question-hour, MNA, Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli asked the foreign minister to inform the House about steps taken so far at the diplomatic level to prevent India from constructing dams on Pakistani rivers. The Parliamentary secretary for Foreign Affairs, Palwasha Khan, replied that under the resumed Dialogue process between India and Pakistan, two rounds of Water Secretary Level Talks have so far been held. She said that in the first round, delegations of the two countries met from May 12-13 2011 in Islamabad. Pakistani delegation reiterated its commitment to bilateral engagement in a spirit of constructive co-operation and emphatically urged India to resolve all outstanding Water issues with Pakistan under the provisions of the Indus Basin Treaty.
According to her, Pakistan has been diligently voicing its concerns on the violations of Indus Waters Treaty committed by India. Efforts were being made at diplomatic level to impress upon India that it was in the interest of both the nations that the treaty be respected and all outstanding issues be solved in the light of the provisions of the treaty, she maintained.
In response to a question by Nisar Tanveer, Minister for Privatisation Jam Mohammad Yousaf said that there was no prescribed criterion for placing government units for privatisation. "However, units to be privatised are approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI)." The CCI approved lists of such SOEs in 1997, 2006 and 2011, he said. Moreover, upon initiation of privatisation of an entity from the approved list, Privatisation Commission consults the respective administrative Ministry and other stakeholders for provision of information on financial and operational position of the unit.