ISLAMABAD, March 25: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday asked the representatives of ministries and departments to improve their marketing strategies and take decisions after analyzing feasibility on commercial basis to make Pakistan a regional hub for international trade.

“Most government entities have weak marketing strategies which adversely affect their profitability and hampers growth,” the prime minister pointed out while chairing the 5th meeting of the National Trade Corridor at the Prime Minister’s House here on Saturday.

The premier also asked all relevant agencies to redesign procedures and focus on improvement of infrastructure — roads, railways, airports and ports — to facilitate trade and investment and increase competitiveness of Pakistani products in the global market.

“The comprehensive/integrated plan to improve the logistics chain and processes is aimed at taking the economy to new heights,” he said.

The prime minister was told that the revised National Aviation Policy was in final stages and would be submitted to the cabinet in six to eight weeks. Two more private sector companies — Pearl Air and Safe Air — have been given licences to operate while open skies policy for cargo operations has been introduced.

Mr Aziz directed Pakistan Railways and PIA to improve their cargo handling facilities and asked the ministry of commerce to prepare a strategy to forecast growth of air cargo. This, he said, would help plan infrastructure development that could keep pace with the growth and specific requirements of different regions. “The policy needs to be prepared in coordination with the related departments.”

According to an official announcement, the prime minister reviewed progress on development plans for ports, modernization of shipping industry, trucking and air transport, improvement of highways and railways restructuring of aviation and air transport and trade facilitation.

He was informed of the development of cargo warehousing and handling facilities at Lahore, Gwadar, Islamabad and Karachi airports. The meeting was told that custom clearance time at the Karachi Port had been reduced to 10 hours, national supply chain security strategy had been finalized and an IC3 agreement had been signed with the US and port entry charges at the Port Qasim had been reduced by 15 per cent.

The prime minister was informed that by June a modern multi-agency transit station would be fully operational at Jamrud, and scanners at Lahore and Jamrud would be installed.

Pakistan Railways would be made into a corporation by December this year, three daily express trains from Karachi-Lahore and upcountry had been launched and two express freight trains would start service by June, the meeting was told.

The prime minister highlighted the need for benchmarking performance of logistics chain with other developing and developed countries. “We should not stay in our comfort zones but look around us to improve relative performance so that we achieve global standards of efficiency and performance,” the prime minister said.