President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Ghulam Mustafa Choudary has said there are opportunities of investment, business collaboration and establishment of joint ventures in different fields between business communities of China and Sialkot.
He invited the Chinese businessmen and investors to visit Sialkot, which is a hub of cottage industry and export-oriented city of Pakistan for assessing the possibilities of joint ventures and business collaboration with local businessmen.
Talking to Business Recorder on Wednesday he said Pakistan's second Export Processing Zone (SEPZ) has been set up at Sambrial and the zone offers exceptional incentives for both local and foreign investors. The president SCCI invited the Chinese investors to invest in SEPZ with full confidence to avail the benefits available both for domestic and foreign investors.
Mustafa pointed out that there were many opportunities for having joint ventures between the business communities of both the friendly countries in the field of sports shoes, composite tennis, squash rackets and sportswear. Sialkot is globally known as a producer of quality products in sports goods, surgical instruments, leather garments, gloves, accessories and musical instruments and earning more than US 1 billion dollars through its exports, Mustafa said.
Sialkot is the only export-oriented in Pakistan where 99 percent industrial production is meant for exports while industrialists and exporters accepted the challenge of compliance to quality standards with determination and that is proved by the fact that majority of certified companies in Pakistan belong to Sialkot, he disclosed. Expressing the confidence he said that Chinese investors and businessmen would consider for investment in different fields.
Keeping in view the fast changing global trends the president SCCI said hectic efforts were being made for ensuring the participation of womenfolk in industrial sector. Mustafa said that women were already working with shoulder to shoulder with male in various sectors and playing their part in the development of the country. There were a lot of opportunities for women in industrial sector of Sialkot especially in garment industry, he said.
The president SCCI said that there was a great need of training women in different sectors like pattern and designing as well as merchendizer adding that government should allocate special funds for providing necessary training to womenfolk. The business community is ready to provide job opportunities to the trained women in their industrial units to enable them earn livelihood in a respectable way, he added.