March 22, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 18, 1424

FAISALABAD, March 21: Pakistani exporters must adopt aggressive strategies and launch their own joint ventures to capture the fast growing fabric market of Kenya and East Africa, said Dr Safdar Sohail, Pakistani trade commissioner in Kenya.

Addressing the members of all Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (APCEA) here on Thursday, he said Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi and Rwanda were fast emerging as the potential markets in East Africa region. He said more than one million tourists visited Kenya last year, which had also catalyzed the economic activities in this part of the world.

Dr Safdar said Kenyan imports stood at $8 billion last year, out of which Pakistan’s share was paltry $170 million. He termed lack of interest as major cause for this poor performance in spite of poverty violence, high import tariff and corruption.

He explained in details the market surveys conducted by the Pakistani high commission for the promotion of Pakistani imports and said that relevant studies and reports were provided to the Export Promotion Bureau for onward dispersal among the exporters.

However, he lamented that yielded poor response and, hence “we decided to establish direct contacts to convince exporters to avail opportunities prevailing in this region”.