SIALKOT, April 30 (APP): President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (SCCI) Majid Raza Bhutta has urged upon the government
to take steps for setting up of sector specific Export Promotion
Councils in the country.
The proposed councils should be established to enhance exports
and these councils should work under Commerce Ministry for the
betterment of export industry he added.
Talking to journalists here on Saturday night he said that
keeping in view fast changing business trends globally a new concept
of Shared Showrooms has been introduced in various countries. He
suggested that shared showrooms and display centres in potential
markets should be set up for providing opportunities to exporters
to showcase their products with proper marketing facilities.
The shared showrooms offer solution to the issue of high cost of maintaining and individual showroom in a foreign country and difficult
to administering it from another country he said. Majid said that
Shared Showrooms is the cheapest way to always have samples available
for the demonstration in another country with the facility of trained
staff to market the products to the buyers visiting facility.
The SCCI President further added that government should provide
special incentives to encourage the export of high priority sectors
like textile and clothing, surgical and dental instruments, leather products, sports goods, footwear, gems and jewelry and furniture.
Emphasizing the need of setting up “Marketing Intelligence Cell”
at Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) for providing
assistance to the manufacturers and exporters in obtaining information pertaining to international demands for commodities, competitive price index, expanding markets and other essential trends. The cell would
also serve to disseminate updated information to the exporters on
export markets and technology to facilitate diversification of exports Majid added.
The SCCI president proposed that government should provide interest free
loan on 10 percent of the total exports for the import of new technology and enabling exporters to upgrade their industrial units for enhancing production inefficiencies.
He further stated that exporter community was making strenuous
efforts for enhancing the export volume despite certain problems
confronted by the business community adding that government should
take immediate steps for resolving the problems on top priority basis.