IN this free-trade and cut-throat competitive era, Gujranwala being deprived of infrastructure, is likely to boost its business standing through a planned Gujranwala Business Centre (GBC). The unprecedented GBC will help industrials enhance the export of their products, officials and industrialists believe.

The GBC is a joint venture of the Gujranwala Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI), the Ministry of Industry and Production and Special Initiatives and Small Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda).

Sheikh Muhammad Ali, the GBC chairman, said the GCCI had provided land for the GBC, the ministry provided Rs98 million for its construction while Smeda would extend consultancy in preparation and execution of GBC plans.

He said a GBC board of management, consisting of six GCCI and four public sector members, would run the affairs of the centre. The GBC is a public-private partnership to provide one-stop shop to Gujranwala products for national and international buyers.

The six-storey building of the centre will be completed in August 2008 wherein 130 stalls will be set up.

He said that a major chunk of the Gujranwala industry consisted of small and cottage industries but it could not be projected internationally because of the lack of sophisticated environment. He said the GBC would also provide free marketing facilities to industrialists for three years where international products would be benchmarked for local products to enhance the quality of products.

The GBC marketing staff will determine the capacity and potential of local industries, and provide training to enhance their markets at both the micro and the macro levels.

Stallholders will pay from Rs7,500 to Rs10,000 monthly charges while meeting rooms will be available to traders free of cost to meet national and international delegations.

The GBC will be a kind of exhibition centre of Gujranwala products.

Rana Shehzad Hafeez, GCCI president, told Dawn that unlike Karachi Expo Centre, the GBC would also provide research and development facilities to industrialists. He said two storeys of the GBC would be used as exhibition halls.