A special export desk should be created in prime minister's secretariat for effective monitoring of exports in addition to redressing day to day issues confronted by this foreign-exchange earning and labor intensive sector of the country.
Chairing a special meeting to finalize the recommendations for tasks force on textile, he said that increase in exports and decrease in imports is a major challenge to stabilize Pak economy on sustained basis. He said that first of all we must concentrate on projecting soft image of Pakistan. "This task should not be left over to government alone as every individual patriotic Pakistani must contribute its role to highlight the peaceful image of motherland", he said. He also paid best tribute to Pak army and told that Pakistan has so far offered 70,000 precious lives to restore peace and crushed terrorism from this part of region.
He said, "Time has come that we should adopt a proactive strategy to convince other countries to withdraw travel advisories as Pakistan is now a safe destination for foreign buyers. However, he criticized anti-Pakistan lobby that is exploiting minor incidents to tag Pakistan with terrorism. He said that Pakistani embassies and high commissions in other countries should also project the concept of a peaceful and rising Pakistan in order to convince maximum foreign buyers.
Syed Zia Alumdar Hussain was critical of inviting paid visitors to various exhibitions organized by TDAP. "It is sheer wastage of Export Development Fund (EDF)," he said and added that major and serious buyers have their own marketing schedule and we must prepare a separate comprehensive, practicable and vibrant strategy to approach serious buyers during international exhibitions abroad instead of inviting them to Pakistan. He said that Pakistan should select only 20 major exhibitions with aggressive marketing and techniques instead of participating in 200 to 250 exhibitions across the globe. This would help Pakistan target only the potential markets instead of wasting precious time and hard earned money of the exporters. He urged that preparation for each exhibition must be started six month before by taking embassy and exporters concerned making exports to that specific country.
The ministry of commerce, commercial attaché must clearly and explicitly communicate the list of leading brands and major retail stores along with their basic data so that meeting of Pakistani exhibitors could also be arranged with the potential buyers. Federal commerce minister should also personally participate in this exhibition and have detailed meetings with the Chief Executive of the major international brands and retail stores in order to cultivate good working relations.
He further said that the Government of Pakistan has announced special incentives for 5 major export sectors including textile. These incentives must be uploaded on social media in order to convince the buyers.
Regarding E commerce, he said that in most cases courier charges are higher than the actual price of product and hence, the Government of Pakistan must negotiate a subsidized tariff with leading courier companies. He was optimistic that Pakistan could earn an additional 1 billion dollar through this segment.
The meeting was also attended by leading exporters of knitwear including Khawaja Amjad Saeed, Dr Khurram Tariq, Qamar Aftab and Kashif Zia.