LAHORE, Jan 19: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday launched country's first business portal (www.b2bpak.com) meant to assist importers in sourcing raw materials and machinery besides helping exporters to introduce Pakistani products without any extra cost.

The website will also provide the business community a forum to interact on business matters besides enabling the users to search through database of some 14,000 LCCI members.

Speaking at the website launching ceremony, Punjab education minister Mian Imran Masood said it was need of the hour to launch a website as information technology had a great role in today's business world. Now, he said, the business concerned information would be circulated rapidly.

He said the Punjab government was also very keen to enhance the business activities in the province. As Punjab had become a hub of business activities, he said, the government would like to be connected with the chambers of commerce and industry.

Mr Masood said the developed countries like Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Germany had introduced economic-based education system. He said the Punjab government was also enhancing relations among educational institutions and industrial units.

He said the LCCI, PPMA and the Government College University had recently signed a memorandum of understanding. Due to the business-friendly policies of President Pervez Musharraf, he said country's economy was growing rapidly and a lot of foreign investment was coming into Pakistan.

The Punjab chief minister, he said, was also making every possible effort to facilitate the business community and taking steps to solve the problems regarding labour department and social security.

He said the LCCI's website would not only help local businessmen but also foreign companies, who would be interested in doing business in Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, LCCI senior vice-president Sohail Lashari lauded the efforts of LCCI executive committee member Mian Shafqat Ali and his team for the successful launching of the first business-friendly portal of Pakistan.

Mr Lashari said the information technology had totally changed the methods of doing business in the world. He said that any business without a website was considered backward and could not compete at the international market because updated data was the basic requirement of businessmen to take a correct decision.

He said the Pakistani businessmen would now be able to get relevant data. Mian Shafqat Ali highlighted the salient feature of the website. LCCI president Mian Misbahul Rehman also spoke on the occasion.