July 31, 2006	Monday	Rajab 4, 1427

NO doubt, Pakistan’s exports have almost been doubled over the past seven years but mainly because of the efforts by individual exporters and not due to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

The EBP is supposed to help exporters by providing them updated information on global business trends.

Apparently, the EPB runs a full-fledged Advisory & Information Centre and publishes a weekly bulletin- ‘Export News’, supposed to contain information on tariffs, concessions, research summaries and inquiries from foreign buyers about Pakistani products but in fact, they do not have much of the required information.

The bulletin is not published regularly. I subscribed for it for a year but received only 36 issues instead of 52 and when I complained about the same, I was told to contact the post office. The bulletin failed to appear during the entire month of March because the staff was busy with Expo-2006.

Not only this, its articles contain no worthwhile information and it continuously prints addresses of Pakistani companies dealing in textiles for many weeks just to fill its pages, although such information could have been placed in their data base for general reference.

On an average, the bulletin carries just two or three enquiries from foreign buyers and on many occasions it has none. Sometimes ago, a team of 22 DMG Officers were posted as commercial counsellors in Pakistani embassies. If each of them had contributed a single enquiry for Pakistani products, the ‘Export News’ would have carried 22 entries each week.

EPB’s Advisory and Information Centre displays international directories which are ( 2-3 years old) and carry addresses and phone/fax numbers of foreign buyers which are quite often untraceable. The database is obsolete.

The Centre also does not have any list containing the addresses of Pakistani manufacturers of exportable goods. I wanted addresses of ‘paper cone’ manufacturers and was advised to consult a local directory which had about 20 entries. I tried to contact concerned people but could not speak to any of them. Imagine my frustration!

Syed Inamul Hai,
Karachi