Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) announced the holding of third gold medal, export trophy awards, bank of the province (export finance) and best airline of the province in cargo sector 2004-05. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has been invited as chief guest of the ceremony scheduled for July 18.
This was announced by Adeel Rauf, a former president of SCCI and chairman of the Export Trophy Awards Committee while flanked by Ghazanfar Bilour, president SCCI, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi and others. He said that the date of the event could be reviewed in the light of Prime Minister's schedule.
He said that all 28 sectors of the province have been included in the gold medals and export trophy awards. The Businessmen of the Year awards would be given in form of seven gold medals in the categories such as top investor of the province in industrial manufacturing sector, top exporter, importer, sales tax payer (on the basis of output sales tax), income tax payer in industrial, trading and retail sectors of the province.
The SCCI has also decided to award bank of the province award on the basis of export performance of the monetary institutions. The bank, which has largely supported export finances, would get the award while a new award has been introduced for SCCI airline of the province in cargo sector.
The export trophy award would be given to the four categories, ie top exporter in industrial sector, runner up in industrial sector, top exporter in trading sector and runner up in the trading sector.
The qualification for participation in the contest is at least Rs 1 million exports in the financial year (2004-05). The manufacturing unit and registered office must be located in NWFP. The areas for participation in the SCCI businessmen of the year and export trophy awards are including forwarding agencies, ghee manufacturers, wheat flour, safety match, plastic goods, aluminium utensils, spices & herbs, glass sheets, electrical goods, furniture, hardware goods, cotton, garments, dry fruits, armoury, engineering goods, sugar, fabrics, cement, handicrafts, livestock & poultry, carpet & rugs, honey, fresh fruits & petrochemicals, leather goods, gems & jewellery, automobiles, marble & granite, pharmaceuticals, sheep casing and many more areas.
The trophy/gold medals awards for 2004-05 will be governed by the rules and regulations framed by SCCI in this behalf. The approved copies of the rules and regulations and application forms are available in the chamber office and can be obtained by the interested members.
Those interested to participate, Adeel Rauf said can collect the application forms from the chamber's office on payment of Rs 1,000 (Rupees one thousand only) non-refundable fee and return it duly filled in along-with all the required documents latest by 21st June 2006 for consideration of the export trophy awards committee of the chamber.
The application received after the last date, he said will not be entertained. Participants are required to apply on the prescribed proforma within the stipulated period.
In response to a question about the requirement of the ceremony, he said that the purpose and objective of the event was to bring the export of the province in the limelight. The idea was flouted two years back and the business community reciprocated with their larger participation in the last two events.
About transparency in the awarding of trophies, he said that a foolproof system has been adopted to ensure merit and award committees took decisions on the basis of facts and figures provided by the commercial banks and a chartered accountant has also been hired to help the committee in this regard. "During last two events, the committee has received no complaints in this regard," he concluded.