August 25, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 11, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 24: Disappointed at the performance of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), exporters of surgical instruments are preferring participating privately in world trade fairs for promotion of their products.

There is a general impression among exporters that even after the creation of a new body for promotion of exports by dismantling the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), hardly any change is visible.

“Inefficiency, lack of direction and commitment of the TDAP officers towards the irritants confronting export trade are haunting exporters,” observed an exporter.

Talking to Dawn from Sialkot, senior vice chairman Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (SIMAP), Syed Waseem Abbas, said most of our members prefer participating in world renowned fairs on their own or through private sponsors.Citing an example, he said even in the coming fair, Medica-07, Dusseldorf, Germany, being held in November, our members would prefer to participate in the fair privately rather than going through the TDAP.

There had been a bad experience whenever our members participated in any fair through the defunct EPB and now TDAP.

It is so much mismanaged that upto last movements, no one comes to know who is going and how much space has been allocated and what is the location of the exhibition hall.

In short, he said normally we never get prime location and this results in no achievement of desired results. Above all, Mr Abbas said participation fee is increasing every year, but there are no end results.

In the forthcoming Medica-07, the TDAP has increased the budget and has also increased participation fee which is not fair because the kind of services and material used for designing of stalls are so poor that it does not justify paying such a huge amount.

He said our members have no way except go privately or through the TDAP, but participation is very important as it helps us learn latest trends and market demands, and it also gives us an opportunity to interact with manufacturers and buyers from other countries.

It may sound funny, he said, adding the fact is whenever we go privately or through our German counterpart, our name appears in the catalogue of the fair, but when we go through the TDAP, it is not there.

“This is sufficient enough to prove how the official agency people work and give services to exporters.”

Similarly, he said stalls are so poor in designing that they give a look of a room on which our names are affixed, he said and added that barring a couple of counters, the stalls are devoid of all necessary furniture and facilities.

When this is a state of affair of such a huge organisation, like the TDAP which has around 800 employees and if on an average, a salary of Rs10,000 is drawn, the monthly bill would be close to Rs10 million.

Syed Waseem Abbas said it is no wonder why Pakistan could not improve its market share in $32 billion worldwide market in surgical instruments.

Presently hardly one per cent of this market is with Pakistan whereas our capacity and skills are much higher.He raised a question that when we hardly have around 10 to 12 products to offer in the world market but still we fail to properly promote their exports whereas other countries have wide range of products going up to 2000 to 2500 then as to how they smartly and efficiently sell these products.

Mr Abbas called upon the highups of the ministry of commerce to look into the affairs of the TDAP which has already become a white elephant, spending huge budget, but producing no results.

He also asked the Prime Minister to form a national policy on marketing of products in the world because in the absence of any rules and ethics, exporters compete with each other in the world market which results in self-inflicting damages.

In Japan, he said there are marketing parameters as well as ethics and no exporter is allowed to quote a price beyond certain level which helps exporters to maintain their quality and also minimises the possibility of adopting wrong means to make profits.