Adviser to the PM on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday said that start-ups have given a “stellar performance” during 2021 by raising investments worth $366 million.

“I accompanied a group of young start-ups for a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan today [Thursday], where they had a very fruitful interactive session with the PM,” he said in a series of tweets on Monday.

The adviser said that issues related to creating an environment to accelerate their growth were discussed during the meeting in Islamabad.

“We will soon organise a meeting of another group of start-ups in this regard,” he said, adding that the commerce ministry conducts a periodic analysis of the degree of diversification by comparing exports during the current financial year with exports during preceding years.

According to the analysis for July-December 2021, Pakistan’s exports of ‘Non-Traditional Products’ increased by 81 per cent/$1.4 billion in the traditional markets and by 100 per cent/$491 million in the non-traditional market as compared to the same period in FY 2017-18.

Such statistics were shared by the adviser on Twitter on Tuesday. “In terms of market diversification, the exports of traditional products increased by four per cent/$79 million for the same comparison. Of the total increase of $4.2 billion, the share of Product and market diversification in the increase accounted for 40 per cent ($2 billion),” it read.

“This is a healthy development and our diversification policy is on track,” Dawood said.

The product and market diversification were the key pillars of the commerce ministry’s ‘Strategic Trade Policy Framework,’ he said, adding: “I urged our exporters to concentrate on product development and penetration of new markets in order to fetch better prices and an overall increase in our exports.”