Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) organized a joint seminar at KCCI to enlighten the business community of Karachi in general and exporters in particular about the prospects of exports to North-West Asian countries with emphasis on Kazakhstan & Kirghizstan. Anjum Nisar, President KCCI, at the outset, welcomed Syed Mohibullah Shah, CEO TDAP & the senior officials of TDAP. President KCCI expressed his gratitude to TDAP Chief for his support and co-operation in organizing the "My-Karachi-2009 Expo" & Pakistan Pavilion in the Tripoli International Fair 2009.
In his welcome address, President KCCI urged to remove the impediments which are severely affecting the exports. He urged the Govt. to decrease the interest rates & inflation, improve the deteriorating law & order situation and develop an environment for better return on investment. He also stressed upon the Govt. to build-up the image of Pakistan in the world which was being faded by the negative propaganda of some foreign media and was a major obstacle in Foreign Direct Investment and it also led to negative travel advisory by western countries to the their investors. President KCCI articulated that despite of global economic slowdown, financial crunch & its adverse impacts, with vibrant confidence & determination, the Pakistani Business Community was steadfast in utilizing its enormous potential and they were continuing their businesses even in adverse circumstances.
Anjum Nisar highlighted that Pakistan is engulfed with massive natural resources like hundreds of indigenous products, diversified crops, vegetables, fruits, mines & minerals, precious stones, coal, 5 rivers 3 deep sea ports etc. The need of the day is to harmonize the co-ordination & co-operation between Public & Private sector to revitalize the economy from the crisis. On the behalf of KCCI, he extended full assistance & co-operation to TDAP in order to uplift and fortify the export activities. He highly criticized the KESC's failure and evasion to improve the power crisis in Karachi and its commitment to invest in the infrastructure development of KESC.
He lamented the due to increased cost of manufacturing, hike in the utility tariffs and power & gas outages the production in the export-oriented industry was declined. Budget 2008-09 show industrial production target of 6% however, during the last 9 months, production result reflect negative 8% growth in the production activity which is simply due to power crisis in the country. He urged the Govt. to take immediate measures on war-footing basis to curb the power crisis and also establish alternate energy source preferably from coal which is an indigenous product available in the country in abundance and it is also a cheap mode for producing energy.
Shariq Vohra, Chairman Export Sub-Committee KCCI appreciated the TDAP Chief for his efforts for the development of trade. He drew attention of CEO, TDAP toward export stagnancy in the SME sector. He requested the TDAP Chief to find out the factors behind the export decline in the SME sector. While conveying dissatisfaction on the performance of Pakistan Commercial Councillors & Attachés in the foreign countries, he conferred with TDAP Chief for appointment of Commercial Attachés from private sector or otherwise they should be given targets for meaningful results. While commenting on the KCCI participation in the International Exhibitions facilitated by TDAP, he proposed to organize another joint seminar by KCCI & TDAP to further improve the facilitation & to rectify the problems which exhibitors faced during the international exhibitions held in the past.
Syed Mohibullah Shah, CEO Trade Development Authority Pakistan (TDAP) appreciated the pivotal & emerging role of KCCI towards promoting the trade & industry in the domestic & international arena. He declared KCCI as the major stakeholder and assured that TDAP will take KCCI on board on all ventures. He agreed that increased cost of doing business incurred severe detrimental impact on the export. He urged the private sector to bring diversity in their export products. He asserted to improve the production system while upgrading the machinery with the latest technology available. He was of the view that in the new era of globalization and competitiveness, only efficient and productive systems will excel therefore private sector should revisit their business strategies and add-up latest technology and skilful human resource to expand their consumer acceptability. He emphasized that energy is the 30% of inputs and therefore to make the industry viable the energy cost should be brought down. Consequently, coal energy is the ideal and cheapest form of energy to run the industry.
Today UK produces 44%, Australia 60%, India 65% and China 70% energy from coal whereas Pakistan produces zero percent despite of having abundant indigenous coal resources, he added. He recommended KCCI to play its role to induce the Govt. to exploit the coal as indigenous energy producing source through Public & Private Partnership. He focused that at present both the exports as well as the number of exporters are static and TDAP is stubborn to motivate entrepreneurs to enter into export business. We need diversification in exports, he commented, as no diversity has been observed in products from 1988 to 2008 as 95% of the products were identical, therefore, TDAP has formulated new strategies to promote and bring into light new agro-based, minerals, precious stones & other indigenous products for export. For increase in export, he added that investment with profitable returns, technology transfer and skilled manpower as major entities.
TDAP Chief drew the attention of KCCI and the business community towards prospects of export to North-West Asian Countries, Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan enroute through Shahrah-e-Karakoram, Kashgar, Bishkek & Almaty. He said that it was imperative to further develop the trade corridor to create linkages with Central Asian Republics which are growing emerging economies. He said that Pakistan-Central Asian Task Force would consist of four members (two from public & two from private sector) form each of the member countries. Initial member countries would be Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan & China which would also be further open to other Central Asian states, including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan & Turkmenistan, he added.
Shaukat Ali Khan, Pakistan Commercial Counsellor for Kazakhstan informed that variety of opportunities present in central Asian States and Pakistan was best suited to tap into them due to its geographical proximity and Pakistan can explore another potential market for trade in fruits, vegetables, leather goods, pharmaceuticals, electronics, sports & surgical goods. Only China & Turkey could provide competition, he added.
Daud Shairf, COO Competitive Support Fund, Shoaib Doggar, Director Road Transport, Ministry of Communication, KCCI Managing Committee Members, eminent businessmen and dignitaries of the society also attended the meeting.