As many as 300 businessmen from Pakistan are likely to take part in the world's largest 18th International Trade Fair K-2010 for Plastics and Rubber to be held in Düsseldorf, Germany from October 24-31, 2010. The Liaison Office for Messe Düsseldorf GmbH in Lahore arranged a presentation on the fair for the people of plastic and rubber industry.
Vice President, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Mian Muhammad Adrees was the chief guest while Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) Chief Executive Officer Shahid Rashid was the guest of honour.
Adress highlighted the importance of international trade fair and said it would provide opportunities to get most beneficial information and exposure to the foreign markets. The participants can learn about new technologies and benefit from the ongoing presentations and discussions. Besides, trade fairs are the meeting points where industry people can share new ideas and innovations in presence of the technology suppliers, he added. Only those industries survive which control cost of doing business, he maintained. The plastic and rubber sector that is attached with the chemical industry has a lot of potential, Adrees said.
Shahid Rashid said that Smeda is working on different sectors but plastic and rubber sectors have been totally ignored. Smeda is implementing different projects worth Rs 2 billion across the country under the Public Sector Development Programme so as enable the SMEs to meet modern standards of marketing and manufacturing.
The CEO Smeda further said the government is fully cognisant to the role of exhibitions and trade fairs in promotion of exports. Smeda has set up a state-of-tht-art display facility at Gujranwala to showcase "made-in-Gujranwala" products for international and local buyers.
The five-story building named as Gujranwala Business Center has been built to provide a modern display facility with the capacity of 130 stalls at Gujranwala, he said adding that Smeda is busy to set up a number of common facility centers across the country.
Dr Gregor Schotten, Counsellor and Head of Press and Economic Section of the Embassy of Germany in Islamabad advised the business community to apply for visa at least 3-4 week before the travel plan. The German government wanted more people to visit Germany but the embassy could not issue visa in short time because of some necessary procedural requirements, he added.
"Germany generally does not discourage visa applicants but one must avoid misuse of visa. Some people don't go Germany even after getting visa and travel to some other countries like France which in our view is misuse of the visa," he explained. The economy in Europe in general and Germany in particular is improving fast and getting out of the economic recession, he said and added Germany wanted to enhance its trade relations with the partners. Director Liaison Office, Jamil A Naz gave a detailed presentation on the trade fair and said that 3000 exhibitors from 55 countries are expected to exhibit their products in 19 halls.
The new technologies will also be emphasising on the improvement in environmental safety and well being. He further said the use of plastics in medical engineering products and pharmaceuticals is nearly 50 percent. As many as 15,000 tons plastic is used in medical industry in Germany while rest of the world is consuming 22 million tons in the same industry.
The plastics user sectors include plastic goods manufacturing, chemical industry, rubber production and processing, machinery, packaging/ logistics, automotive, aviation and aerospace, electrical engineering/electronics, construction/architecture and interior design, medical technology, mechanics/ optics, energy technologies/ photovoltaics, agriculture, sports/leisure activities, optics, fiber optics, IT and telecommunications, he added. He further said the Pakistani companies engaged in import and trading of plastics and rubber items belong to automotive, construction, packaging and engineering industries.