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

KARACHI, April 1: The warm reception accorded to the Expo Pakistan 2006, currently in progress at Expo Centre in Karachi, by the foreign businessmen, only goes to reconfirm the fact that Pakistan has an immense export potential in both traditional and non-traditional items. All that needed — is a proper introduction to international business players and some space for private sector for matchmaking with business houses of the West.

A review of the 5-day mega event showed that businessmen and their representatives were quite excited and pleased with the commerce ministry’s performance this year.

The commerce ministry with the support of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) is primarily responsible for putting up the show.

Unlike last year, there are believed to be many genuine potential western buyers of Pakistani products in attendance this year. Four days into the exhibition and the private sector of Pakistan has already signed a number of MoUs with visiting trade teams. It was learnt that many business houses and associations had been approached by representatives of international business houses in the city to make inquiries in order to evaluate different business options.

Some of the foreign delegates asked for their impression by Dawn, appeared quite satisfied with the arrangements and were all praise for Pakistani hospitality. They found the country to be a lot better than the way it is projected in international media. “We only discovered the real Pakistan when we disembarked the flight,” said a representative of a major business group. “Frankly, we carried a scary image of your country,” he said and added that he was not aware of what they were missing out.

“My colleagues and I are impressed by the quality of exhibits at the expo and are looking forward to forging a long term business relationship with Pakistani entrepreneurs and traders,” he said.

The local business community is expecting many new trade and business relationships to materialize as there is a lot of match-making taking place on the sidelines of the expo. It would take about a year’s time before the actual gains to the local businesses and to the Pakistani economy accrue. Business leaders are, nonetheless, satisfied with the show: “The outcome is far better than what we expected,” Ameen Bandukda, Chairman Site Association of Industry said commenting on the Expo.

He confided that the community was initially sceptical since the previous exhibition was not able to attract the kind of crowd from abroad that business people were expecting.

One of the reasons, they thought, was that last year the event’s organization was handed over to an agency that probably mismanaged the show. “The government can not and should not do it alone. It is a business event and its success to a great measure will depend upon the level of involvement of direct market players,” said the chairman SITE Association. This year the government did well to involve trade associations and exporters in the organization of the event.

The business community attributed the proper performance of the Expo to a number of factors. “In my view three major factors that contributed to the success are: one, inducting the private sector in the organization; two, efforts by the government to avoid mistakes of the last year; three, very effective performance of commercial councillors of Pakistan in Western countries,” say Atiq A Kochra, Zonal Chairman of the Pakistan Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea). He observed that there was no doubt in his mind that Pakistan had the potential and given an enabling environment the private sector can work wonders for the country.”

Some textile associations have reportedly booked certain halls in hotels, where the delegates are housed, to facilitate their members to make one to one contacts with the visitors.

Zaid Bashir, the CEO of Gul Ahmed Lawn, who is exhibiting at the expo, expressed some reservations. He said: “We have mostly management people here and not the decision-makers. It would be unrealistic to expect too much from them,” adding: “We should target the right people to make most out of this exercise.”

Some businessmen were also critical of the government for unnecessarily politicising the event. “We have a tendency to transform everything into a political affair. If the government wanted to honour the delegates it could have been done in some other way. Too much involvement of the political hierarchy in a business event only leads to frustration and time loss. Who likes to wait for the identification for hours, to listen to lengthy boring speeches, or for that matter, how could a fashion show exhibiting Eastern dresses in day-time amuse Westerners. They do not. These delegates are here to make business contacts and establish business relationships, the government should let them do what they are here for and should not tax their patience for accepting an invitation,” said an angry businessman who did not approve of the VVIPs presence, which he felt, was more of a hassle.

Another marked feature of the exhibition was absence of businessmen from Saarc region. There are delegates from US, Sweden, France, Germany, Canada and several other far off nations but none from India, Bangladesh, Nepal or Sri Lanka was spotted. “They are our competitors and not buyers primarily. However, it would have been good had they been here as well. Indians must be interested but there still are procedural problems that act as a discouraging factor,” Amin Bandukda felt. “May be it reflected the old mindset of looking Westward even when more can be achieved at much lesser cost by trading in the region,” commented another businessman.

Weighing benefits against costs, the local business community generally felt that even if a handful of major deals are done, the event would be worth its while.