ISLAMABAD, May 8: The Board of Administrators of Export Market Development Fund (EMDF) on Saturday approved major initiatives for export marketing, image management and launching of mass awareness campaign of WTO related issues.

The meeting was headed by federal minister for commerce, Humayun Akhtar. It was attended by senior officials and relevant stakeholders. The board agreed with the scheme and theme of the Expo Pakistan at Karachi. The concept of Expo Pakistan has already been approved by the cabinet and announced in the Trade Policy 2003-04.

The minister said that the objective of this concept was to project the softer and progressive image of Pakistan and to help both Pakistani exporters and international importers to explore opportunities of closer and sustained business relationship.

It was decided that the active involvement of all the agencies of the government, FPCCI, chambers, specialized trade associations and other stakeholders would be secured and event managers would be hired to execute the project.

The event will be organized at Karachi Expo Centre as the hub of the activity whereas the whole of Karachi City will be involved in showcasing various products taking into account the cultural and historical background of the country. This will be an annual event to be included in the international calendar of events and exhibitions.

It was also decided that a mass awareness campaign of WTO would be launched soon. The minister said although Pakistan was a founding member of WTO, people at home were not fully cognizant of the impact of WTO commitments on the economy and there was a dearth of studies on various multilateral agreements and their implications for Pakistan.

The awareness programmes so far developed have had limited impact. It was felt that a mass awareness campaign was needed to be conducted to apprise the quarters concerned about the challenges and opportunities that the WTO regime was expected to bring about.

It was decided that a detailed strategy for the campaign would be devised in consultation with the selected management firm, however, it was envisaged that besides the above, other activities such as publishing of articles, advertisements and development of programmes in the print and electronic media, development of literature covering important aspects of WTO agreements, holding of conferences, establishment of help lines, etc., would also form part of the strategy. It was decided that a management firm would be hired for a period of 12 months.