The Union of Small & Medium Enterprises (Unisame) had a joint meeting with Khawaja Raffat Zaheer, country representative in Pakistan for International Multimodal Transport Association of Geneva, and Nasir Jamil, logistics expert of Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport UK and several leading freight forwarders & freight brokers, who participated on behalf of their organisations.
The main point focused in the meeting was on reducing the cost of doing business in Pakistan, particularly with a view to export.
It was recognised that 30 percent of the total cost of goods in international trade consist of logistics cost.
It is, therefore, imperative that the business leaders of Pakistan should pay attention to the requirements of using modern techniques in transportation and logistics, particularly the use of Multimodal Transport System (MTS).
Zulfikar Thaver, President of Unisame, appealed to the Ministry of Commerce, Export Promotion Bureau and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) to introduce the system of door-to-door through transport concept using various modes of transport in the supply chain.
"This system is the answer to removal of hurdles and delays and brings about a smooth and swift movement of cargo," he said.
He said the five pillars of trade & commerce are the buyer, the seller, the bank, the insurance company and the logistics, which should not be ignored. He emphasised the urgent need of adopting the system of MTS, which is successfully being practised the world over.-PR