ISLAMABAD, Nov 4: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has recommended the establishment of a national quality control and standards institution in the public sector for proper certification of exportable products.
ICCI president Zubair Ahmed Malik while talking to newsmen at the chamber on Tuesday said the institution should be set up by the commerce ministry with the collaboration of the private sector.
This institution, he said, should have a nucleus of well-trained professional staff. Its financing should be made possible through the Export Development Fund (EDF) managed by the commerce ministry.
Elaborating further the president said assistance for training staff should be sought from the European Union, which has already taken interest in establishing Quality Training and Management (QMG) system in Pakistan.
The business community of would welcome such an initiative by the government, he said adding these measures would give boost to Pakistani exports.
He said that there had been serious lapses in the recent past on the matter of quality of goods and commodities exported to several countries.
Citing an example Zubair Malik said that Basmati and Irri rice varieties were among the top 10 commodities exported from Pakistan to more than 70 countries.
“Pakistan has been losing Basmati rice market to India, which has entered the Middle Eastern markets with aggressive marketing and quality control strategies”, he said.
In early 80s Saudi Arabia was the largest Pakistani Basmati rice market constituting 82 per cent of the total Saudi rice market. Pakistan’s share of the market has declined to 11 per cent and India’s share has gone up to 81 per cent.
He said that according to a well-documented rice market study prepared recently by Pakistan Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, several reasons have been pointed out for Pakistan’s regression and failure in the rice market.
According to the study quality control has been seriously lacking. For example, Saudi law requires that each packet/
container of rice must show type, grade and broken percentage of rice, but in most cases Pakistani packets of rice failed to adhere to these requirements.
Another factor responsible for decline in rice export is the non-availability of quality par boiled rice. During 2000-01 Basmati rice exports declined by 22
per cent in terms of value with an over 30 per cent fall in quantity.
Referring to the issue of protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), Mr. Malik pointed out that the lack of effective laws in this regard and a proper mechanism to enforce them is keeping foreign investment away from Pakistan.
Continued availability of smuggled goods and fake products in the domestic market is a major reason for hesitation on the part of the local and foreign investors to invest in a big way in Pakistan, he added.