PPDSC

Public Private Dialogue Steering Committee (PPDSC) is established

To address the gap in public private consultation for trade policy formulation, activities have been designed to promote a more comprehensive, regular and well informed public private dialogue (PPD). Key in this approach is the formalization of a mechanism that promotes regular public-private engagement. For these purposes a Public Private Dialogue Steering Committee (PPDSC), comprising public and private sector representatives has been established with the formal approval of Ministry of Commerce (MoC). The PPDSC comprises of six members each from public (Federal Ministries) and the private sectors (Chambers of Commerce and Trade Association). Academia and research institutes are also represented in the Committee through the Director-General, Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development (PITAD) as co-chair of the Committee as well as one representative of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). The second co-chair of the Committee is the Additional Secretary, MoC.

The Committee is mandated to guide a series of PPDs as well as ensure necessary follow up with Government on trade policy issues. The PPDSC would also commission a number of research studies on selected trade policy issues which would feed into the PPDs as well as put forward consolidated policy recommendations to the Government of Pakistan.

General guidelines for the PPDSC

First meeting of the PPDSC held

The first meeting of the PPDSC was held on 13 April 2011 in the Committee Room of Ministry of Commerce, Islamabad, under the chairmanship of the Acting Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and the Director-General, PITAD. The agenda of the meeting included:

Selection of topics/issues for the public private dialogues (PPD) scheduled for 2011
Selection of relevant topics for research studies to explore feasibility of various policy options
Selection of an Executive Committee for the PPDSC

In the ensuing discussion it was highlighted that there is a need to develop the capacity of the private sector on trade policy issues so that they can benefit from the facilities provided to them in the trade policies and participate effectively in the design and implementation of trade policy.

First PPDSC Meeting, held on 13 April 2011

Similarly, it was pointed out that the private sector is mostly unaware of the facilities and concessions provided to them by the Government in trade policies. As such the information gap does not allow the traders to benefit from those facilities available to them legally. The PPDSC was informed that our exports are suffering from Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) requirements of foreign markets and the issue needs to be addressed through capacity building of the traders through strengthening of the training wings of the chambers.

The Committee selected an Executive Committee of the PPDSC where they agreed that it should consist of one representative each from the Government (Pakistan Institute for Trade and Development) , the private sector (Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and academia (Lahore University of Management Science ) It was further agreed that the Executive Committee will be chaired by the Director General of PITAD and will make decisions on behalf of the PPDSC when it is not in session.

After a detailed discussion the PPDSC agreed to hold PPDs and attendant research on the following two trade policy and regulatory reform issues during 2011:

Trade in Services
Regional integration / Free Trade Agreement

Minutes of the first meeting of the PPDSC