KARACHI, Jan 29: SITE Association of Industry will arrange a series of meetings between local business houses and the foreign delegates attending Expo Pakistan next week providing them a platform to explore possibilities of joint ventures.

"We will do a sort of match making," said the newly-elected chairman of the Association Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig. He said he had planned a series of meetings from February 1-3 between local business leaders including textile tycoons and delegates of India, Poland and Morocco.

The 20-member Indian delegation comprising businessmen representing chemicals, engineering, IT and automobile sectors would visit the SITE area on February 3 and receive a detailed briefing on the possibilities of joint ventures between Pakistan and India.

"We will show them around. They will not only get a formal briefing but will also visit some industries including textile units, meet their bosses and discuss ways to enhance business links," Dr. Baig told Dawn on Friday. Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate or SITE houses 2500 industries including 1000 textile units and provides jobs to half a million people.

SITE Association has planned meetings with the foreign delegates on the sidelines of the Expo Pakistan to ensure that foreign delegates establish and firm up their relations with Pakistani businessmen, set up join ventures and increase imports from Pakistan.

Dr. Baig said that before the visit of Indian delegation on February 3, SITE Association would also arrange a visit to the SITE area of the 22-member delegation of Morocco and 5-member delegation of Poland.

He said the Moroccan delegation would be led by their Commerce Minister and would include businessmen representing textiles, pharmaceuticals and leather sectors.

During their visit to the SITE Area, business tycoons from India, Morocco and Poland will see for themselves the working conditions of various industries including textiles, the standards being observed in manufacturing of various products, the shape of technology. They will also get first hand knowledge about the efficient ways of resource utilization by Pakistani companies besides apprising themselves of the latest lines of finished products of textiles and other industries.

A former chairman of SITE Association Mr Majyd Aziz said many top textile tycoons and leaders of other industries are looking forward "to doing some initial networking with the visiting foreign delegates."

He said Expo Pakistan is going to showcase Karachi and by implication Pakistan before the global trading community. "That itself is important. But at the same time we would try to make new business contacts, reinforce the established ones and explore areas we can have joint ventures."

As for as actual buying by the foreigners at the Expo Pakistan is concerned, "we should realise that large business deals are not immediately struck. What is more important to see is amount of interest that we can generate among foreigners about our products and industries through this event."

Textiles with a two third share in Pakistan's exports would likely feature high on the list of the industries whose bosses would try to attract as much attention of foreign buyers as possible.

In the first half of this fiscal year, Pakistan earned more than $3.7 billion through export of textile manufactures. Its total exports stood around $6.496 billion during this period.

That Expo Pakistan is being held only a month after the lifting of the textile quotas from January 1, 2005 lends it special significance. Pakistan's textile sector invested $4 billion in upgrading and capacity enhancement of its manufacturing units in the last few years to prepare itself for the post-quota regime. Textile tycoons say they are still making strategic investment to reap the benefits of the lifting of quotas.

Trade data confirm this trend. In six months to December 2004, Pakistan's import of textile machinery went up by 70 per cent to $451 million. Both Dr Ikhtiar Baig and Mr Majyd Aziz say the bulk of this import bill went on import of textile machinery used in processing, finishing and designing.

"People have realized that in order to get more of export share they will have to shun obsolete machinery, obsolete processing and obsolete ideas," remarked Mr Aziz.

That is perhaps why "we are importing such sophisticated machinery as the ones used in flat finishing of denim (this softens the denim textures enabling the manufacturers to give a better shape and look to denim textiles including jeans)."