Assar Qureshi is a Pakistani-origin diplomat working for the Danish Foreign Services. After receiving international schooling in Copenhagen, he went to the United Kingdom where he received his graduate education in International Relations and Strategic Studies at the University of Wales, and his post-graduate education in International Relations from the University of Manchester. His career has taken him through roles in investment banking, climate finance, and lately, diplomacy. Qureshi has been serving as the Denmark’s Commercial Counselor at the Pakistan Embassy since 2014. Three months before his term is up, BR Research sat down with him in Islamabad to discuss the dynamics of Pak-Danish trade and investment and opportunities thereof. Selected excerpts are produced below
BR Research: What are some of your main responsibilities as the Danish Embassy’s Commercial Counselor?
Assar Qureshi: It has been an entrepreneurial experience for me. I was the first commercial counselor, and first head of the trade section, to be posted from Denmark to Pakistan. The trade department was established here at the Embassy in December 2013. I came here in September 2014. The Danish Government has prioritised moving from aid to trade in Pakistan, and as a person with an affinity to both countries, it was a privilege to be given the task of increasing sustainable prosperity in both countries.
The primary responsibility I have to promote exports from Denmark to Pakistan. That entails things like creating partnerships for Danish private sector with the Pakistani private and public sectors, organising delegations, organising seminars and events, both in Denmark and in Pakistan to create a buzz and awareness about the trade potential between the two countries.
BRR: What kind of forums have you tapped to promote trade?
AQ: Through the course of these years, we have rejuvenated the Pakistan-Denmark Business Club, whose membership is composed of Danish companies doing business here and their local partners. We used the club to promote networking with the embassy as well as networking in between the Danish companies. Whenever a delegation visited, we tried to have a broad range of local players to network with them. The club meets three times a year, and we bring them different areas of commercial interest.
We have organized several delegations to and from Denmark since the creation of the trade section. We had the first-ever official Danish business delegation to Pakistan in October of 2014. We achieved that with the help of the Confederation of Danish Industries, which is Denmark’s largest business association. It was a resounding success. Not only did the companies go back to Denmark with a renewed impression of Pakistan, but they also had concrete leads and partnership opportunities, and we got good coverage in the media of our efforts to promote trade.
We learnt something really valuable from that visit – the first visit to Pakistan is the hardest visit. Once we bring them here and put them in front of relevant and qualified counterparties, they leave Pakistan with a very positive impression and they come back again. Sometimes, they even act as ambassadors amongst the other companies and business associations back home. They go around telling people that Pakistan is an interesting market, everybody speaks English, and there are a huge proportion of well-educated and professional individuals that they can do business with.
BRR: What were the objectives you set at the outset? And after three years, how do you view the progress your department has made?
AQ: One of our targets in 2014 was to grow Danish exports to Pakistan by 40 percent over three years. At the time, Danish exports were around 1.4 billion Danish Krone, with Pakistani exports to Denmark almost at similar level. So, bilateral trade was around $450 million both ways, with roughly equal terms of trade. We just got the statistics for 2016. It looks like when everything will be up and counted and the services sector will be accounted for, we have grown Danish exports to around 2.4 billion Danish Krone, which is an increase of around 70 percent since 2014. This growth is really impressive. Just last year, the Danish export of goods grew at almost 57 percent. Most of that growth was concentrated in pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
BRR: What is the source of these figures?
AQ: These are all external figures, based on data from Danish Statistical Bureau and Oxford Economics.
BRR: Beyond pharmaceuticals and chemicals, what is it that Denmark is really good at exporting that can find a market in Pakistan? And what did your department do about it?
AQ: It’s actually quite diverse. On the goods side, we are talking about a lot of specialised machinery for industries like cement and fertilizer. We have a very significant renewable energy focus. Two of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers are Danish – so one of Denmark’s major exports is wind turbines. There is also food-processing technology as well as finished food products such as Danish dairy products like butter, and food ingredients. On the services side, shipping is the largest export. The world’s largest shipping company, Maersk, is Danish.
On your question about identifying potential in Pakistan, we had to have a focus, on a few key areas. And we initially focused on renewable energy and pharmaceuticals. We worked with two of the major Danish firms that work in this space. We engaged Vestas for renewable energy – they did a road show in Pakistan in the summer of 2014. Since then things have moved fairly quickly in terms of identifying specific projects, investments and partnerships with the public and private sectors.
We also engaged Novo Nordisk, which is the world’s largest insulin manufacturer. Because the burden of diabetes is growing so rapidly in Pakistan, it made sense to us as an embassy to team up with Novo Nordisk. So we did a number of events with the firm. We engaged local health practitioners through government channels and helped organise Pakistan Diabetes Leadership Forums to raise awareness and to give the governments some recommendations. We organised one forum in 2014 with the federal government, another in 2015 with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, and then again in 2016 with the Punjab government.
Danish companies are also strong in the water and environment sector, and we are in the process of developing a large-scale water project in Faisalabad using a blend of grants and soft loans.
BRR: You earlier mentioned bilateral trade growing in double-digits. What about Danish firms in some of those sectors setting up Greenfield operations in Pakistan?
AQ: Investment will follow from increased trade. There are challenges, but our aim has been to slowly sensitize the Danish business community, bring them over here, establish local partnerships, increase their trade flows, and as a next step, explore opportunities for direct investment.
Having said that it’s not just an ambition – we have also achieved it in certain cases. Vestas is currently developing 1,000MW wind power projects in Rojhan tehsil of district Rajanpur in Punjab. At current rates, 1000MW translates into around $1.6 billion. A lot of that investment will come from Danish and western sources. The first 250MW project is at a fairly mature development stage where financial close may be achieved by second quarter of next year. Vestas now has an office in Pakistan and is incorporated locally.
BRR: There could be other opportunities as well. There is an apparent infrastructure boom in Pakistan, both related and unrelated to CPEC. Have you noticed interest from Danish firms who specialise in cement machinery?
AQ: We are not a direct part of CPEC, but it is clear that some of the Danish sectors would indirectly benefit from any increased trade activity. One of them is the cement industry. It’s natural that as the demand for highways and bridges increases, demand for cement will increase, which in turn will increase local and international investment in the cement production facilities. It is certainly a positive thing for those Danish companies that produce cement equipments. And we have seen some progress in that regards, but I am unable to divulge anymore because things are still under discussion.
Another area that I would like to highlight is shipping. Maersk already commands the largest shipping market share in Karachi. Any increase in exports from and imports to Pakistan has a positive impact for the shipping companies if they position themselves correctly. Like any good company, they will follow the developments closely, directly or indirectly. The more shipping that takes place in and out of Pakistan, the more exposure Danish firms, such as container shipping and ports firm A.P. Møller Maersk, can get.
BRR: Let’s pivot to Pakistani exports to Denmark. How is the situation there?
AQ: As per the statistics I have, the growth of Pakistani exports to Denmark last year was 28 percent. We are still talking very robust growth. There are, of course a number of factors at play, including currency. But one of the biggest supporting pillars of increased Pakistani exports to Denmark is the GSP+ status that Pakistan enjoys in the EU market. Denmark has supported the GSP+ for Pakistan within the EU. Overall, we hope that Pakistan can maintain this growth going forward and maintain GSP+ status.
In terms of commodities, what the Danish firms have been sourcing from Pakistan has mostly been concentrated in textiles. When they engage with a Pakistani company, they don’t just buy; they also bring in certain environmental standards and labour standards that we follow in Denmark. So if a company is buying garments from Pakistan, they are in a way contributing to sustainable development in Pakistan and improving the standards.
BRR: Besides textiles, what other goods can Danish firms potentially source from Pakistan?
AQ: The potential is there when it comes to leather goods, surgical equipments, sports goods, even agriculture produce. To be honest, our focus has really been boosting Danish exports to Pakistan. However, if a Danish company or a group of Danish firms approaches us about sourcing from Pakistan, we are more than happy to help them find sourcing partners. We do get a lot of queries from Pakistani firms interested in exporting to Denmark, and we try our best to hook them up with relevant players in Denmark. For example, we organized a high-powered textiles delegation to Denmark in late 2015.
BRR: Your time at the post is up this September. What is your key learning from this assignment?
AQ: Overall we have been really encouraged with the level of interest and support that we have received from both the federal government and the various provincial governments as well as the private sector. If it was not for that enthusiasm and support, several projects could not have happened. We are thankful for that. But what can be frustrating at times is to know which stakeholders do what and how the interplay between different government agencies manifests itself into real actions. Just navigating those layers where there is sometimes disconnection and disharmony in strategic priorities can be a frustrating process. The learning is to keep pushing and not take anything for granted. Pakistan is a complex place with a different way of doing business. You have to stay on top of things all the time.