KARACHI: Trade bodies and associations have not done homework from their institutionalized platforms. Whatever little has been done is done privately by individuals who wanted to assess the risks against opportunities that the post-quota era will offer.

Representatives of the private sector blame the government for not providing enough funds for market research and R&D.

The status of research activity in private sector forums give credence to the impression that businessmen interact with the policymakers and bureaucrats for resolving their personal issues instead of making any effort for the entire business community.

Dawn has tried to solicit views from the private sector people who are running the affairs of trade associations and to gather their views on the lethargic attitude in conducting R&D and other deep market studies for future challenges.

Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) acting president Mian Abrar Ahmed does not agree that the private sector is ill-equipped in facing the quota-free environment. He also did not agree that the private sector people and their bodies have been making strides for personal gains from the government.

He said trade and business bodies did not have surplus funds to conduct market research and R&D. There is a dearth of government agencies and departments who could offer their help. That is why the government and the private sector are dependent in calling foreign experts to conduct market research, studies and R&D.

It is time, he said, that public and private sectors should join hands and chalk out strategy for conducting R&D for the WTO challenges.

He said he was still unclear about the full preparation of the private sector for the upcoming challenges of the quota-free world.

"There is a dire need for joint ventures with India and China in order to compete in the international market," Mr Abrar said. However, he said that still a lot to be done by the government for the private sector in taxes and duties and a zero duty on import of raw materials in order to compete with foreign counterparts.

Site Association of Industry Chairman Mohammad Nisar Sheikhani said the association had not done any market research and R&D on its own due to lack of surplus funds. "Actually these two things do not fall in the official structure or duty of the association."

However, industrialists have done the market research and R&D on their individual basis. The Site Association has conducted only seminars in this regard, besides fighting up with the government for curtailing the cost of production, machinery imports at lower duty rate and cut in duty of raw materials.

He rejected the impression that the private sector people, running the affairs of trade bodies, are making personal efforts for the solution of their problems.

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Vice-President Engr M.A. Jabbar said that the FPCCI had been sending recommendations to the federal government for taking measures through trade policy initiatives in bringing the country close to the compliant position. "The preparedness level is not satisfactory as normally the announced initiatives in trade policies do not take practical implementations before the announcement of the next trade policy," he said.

On efforts in conducting market research and R&D by the FPCCI, he said the federation had not done anything in this regard, but the people have done a lot of homework on individual basis. "However, the FPCCI has been asking the Export Promotion Bureau to introduce new markets for the exporters. In this area, our success is not worth mentioning. China and India have taken lot of initiatives to provide better market access for their exporters to bid sharing the promise of increased market in the quota-free climate in respect of textile and clothing.

In reply to a query that the private sector people are more interested in reaping personal gains from the government instead for the whole business community, Mr Jabbar says the encouragement by the government to individual connections is also the reason to affect departure from what should be the principle service provided by trade bodies to serve the general interest.-ASK