April 2, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

KARACHI, April 1: The city of Karachi is expected to shake off its image of a troubled port city of Pakistan as the hi-fi five-day export exhibition —- Expo Pakistan 2006 — attracted a good number of prominent businessmen, delegates and journalists from across the world, said an exporter.

The metropolitan — that has been a target of terrorism for more than a decade – successfully host to guests from all over the world participating in the export exhibition. Managers of the mega export fair found no resistance from any quarter to stage a peaceful exhibition in the heart of the city.

The image of the Quaid’s city had been tarnished because of several bombing incidents, which unfortunately occurred in the key business areas targeting foreigners. Five star hotels — that are now booked to capacity — were subsidising room rents to cope with low occupancy trend in the past. The situation worsened when a suicide bomber targeted Western guests outside a five star hotel.

Despite a bad image in the media caused by these terrorist acts, Karachi continued to provide highest revenues to the government. The law and order situation was worst during the 90s but it, however, improved with the passage of time except for isolated acts of violence.

Exporters said on Saturday that the exhibitions like Expo Pakistan should continue in future and more and more foreign delegates should be invited to promote the image of a truly cosmopolitan city of the country. Exporters said they had been facing problem in the past in inviting buyers to Karachi to place export orders because of its bad image, but the Expo had helped to eliminate the problem.

“Image has become the central point in all businesses, whether it is a product, service, a country or a city,” said Abid, a garment exporter.

The first expo held last year was also peaceful which helped the organizers to promote Karachi as a terrorism-free place and the economic hub of the country.

However, most of the exporters were of the view that such exhibitions should be held on a regular basis for at least another 10 years which will earn a permanent good image for the city. They suggested that more money should be spent to improve the image of Karachi as ultimately, it will yield results more valuable than the expenses.

Thousands of colourful flags were hoisted in the main areas of the city, while nearby buildings were illuminated to present a glittering image of Karachi. Before the exhibition roads and footpaths were repaired and painted. The traffic management was reasonably good, but not excellent, because the traffic load on roads had multiplied by several times in the last five years.

Some foreign journalists also visited the expo and expressed good opinion which is yet to appear in their respective newspapers.

Exporters were found unsatisfied with the coverage of the expo in the electronic media and accused the organizers of not realising the importance of the media. They said some private channels were being watched world over and an early campaign over these channels could have produced more positive impact on the expo.

“Next time services of an image building company should be hired to promote Karachi as one of the best commercial cities of the world and most attractive place for trading and manufacturing,” said S Kaleem, a pharmaceutical company’s representative.