L A H O R E : Acl(nowledging the fact that highercost ofproduction are rendering local businesses uncompetitive in the world markets, Governor Chaudhry Sarwar calls for renegotiating power tariff deals with independent power producers (IPPs).

`No business can flourish with the existing costs of production because of higher rates of electricity and gas,` the governor said while responding to a demand by the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan at an award ceremony of the trade body.

`The basic reason is that energy policies of successive governments have been wrong. They allowed payment of capacity charges to IPPs leading to hike in power costs and also inked agreements for purchase of LNG at higher rates than what were offered to other countries,` he said, apologizing for political comments at an apolitical event.

He called for taking bold decisions by renegotiating with IPPs on their power agreements and rationalizing LNG costs to bring down cost of production and making industrial as well as agriculture sector viable.

He said the development of high-yielding seed of rice, cotton, wheat and othercrops and vegetable should be top priority to meet food security challenges for the risingpopulation.

Lauding the government`s efforts to curtail current account deficit, he promised fighting for the cause of rice exporters in the higher echelons of power.

REAP Chairman Shahjahan Malik demanded that like the textile industry rice export sector, the second largest in terms of foreign exchange earnings, should also be provided electricity and gas at zero rate to reduce the cost of production.

He said as the private sector had developed highyielding hybrid coarse rice varieties it should be facilitated for developing Basmati hybrids too for earning more foreign exchange.

Mr Malik also demanded that the government facilitate them in the provision of harvesting machinery to prevent post-harvest losses. He also urged rice body members not to be shy of developing their brands and considering expenses on intellectual property rights (litigation) as part of their business costs.

Former chairman Shahzad Ali Malik hoped with proper government support rice exporters could touch $5 billion exporttargetinñve years.

He drew attention of the authorities towards the all important Iran market for Basmati exports.

Pir Nazim Hussain Shah and Abdur Rahim Janoo also spoke and greeted winners of REAP performance awards.