Expo Pakistan 2005 is a platform, which invites global market leaders and importers, overseas buyers and opinion leaders from around the world of media to come and visit Pakistan this year. It also provides prospects for joint ventures and, for international buyers, to explore export potentials alongwith the tourist attraction that has something for everyone.
Expo Pakistan 2005 is a gateway to the true commercial richness of Pakistan and to promote this aspect, the President, Prime Minister, Commerce Minister & Chairman EPB have undertaken hectic foreign visits to apprise the international community of goods & services of Pakistan.
Not only this but they have portrayed in front of the world gorgeous and dazzling colors of this land of pure. They specially visited UK, France, Argentina, USA, Brazil, Mexico, China and Japan and many more countries of Middle East. Effective marketing tools have been used to bring Pakistan in the limelight as a land of "Opportunities Unlimited".
The concept of this Expo 2005 is not just to display our exportable products but also to make the World sentient of the quantum leap that Pakistan has made in exports from eight billion in 2000-01 to more than twelve billion in 2004.
In the Expo we have selected 10 product sectors ie Textiles, Leather, Food Products, Sports Goods, Surgical, Cutlery, Engineering Goods, Carpet and Furniture.
More then 1000 visitors are coming from abroad 77 countries of the world. There are 15 Trade Ministers as well as a large number of Heads of the Chambers of Commerce who will visit the Expo. Presidents of Chain stores and Departmental stores from Europe and USA in addition are also participating.
During the event 10 Memorandums of Understanding will be signed between various international trade bodies with the FPCCI, KCCI and LCCI, and other trade bodies to ensure co-operation as well as increase in the volume of trade of the country all over the world.
Meetings have been arranged with the President of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan of top buyers / delegations / investors. There will be product display for Buyers & Invitees, Exhibitors & Buyers matchmaking and Workshops on various Product Categories. There will be a product display for general visitors on the concluding day ie Sunday - February 6, 2005.
On 3rd February, along with the product displays continuing, there will be a day-long Conference on Investment and Trade Opportunities. The participants will be addressed by the Governor State Bank on economic overview of Pakistan and by the Minister for Investment and Privatisation on the investment climate in the country.
Minister of State and Chairman EPB will give a talk on the export potential of Pakistan. There will be several important speakers from the government agencies and trade and industry who will speak on trade facilitation, taxation, environment, social and security compliance, financial sector, infrastructure and human resource and services sector development. In each segment of the conference, there will be question-answer sessions.
After the trade and investment conference, Product Workshops will be held on selected export sectors. These are textiles, clothing, leather, leather garments and leather products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, processed foods, fisheries, sports goods and auto parts. In these workshops, trade and industry leaders in each sector will respond to questions from the participants, both foreign visitors and local entrepreneurs, on various aspects of exports.
EXPO Pakistan will be an overall composite economic activity event. The objective is to brief the participants on the economic turn around achieved by Pakistan in the last 4-5 years, based on consistent and continuing economic and financial reforms, GDP growth, increases in exports, production and employment. The improvement in the country's image as a potential exporter and as a promising destination for foreign investment will be projected and shared with the visitors from all over the world.
This is a matchless opportunity being made available in the Expo 2005 in which Pakistani Exporters will come into direct contact with visiting delegates interested in buying from Pakistan. Arrival of delegates from across the global will be an added boost for market diversification to our exports.
This mega event holds high promise in terms of trade in goods, development of business partnerships, conclusion of joint venture contracts, relocation of industries in Pakistan with buy-back arrangements, co-operation in marketing through acquisition or franchising of reputed foreign brand names and, above all, further improvement in the image of Pakistan as a country where investment is safe and profitable and there are no security risks for business visitors coming to Pakistan. EPB is very hopeful of obtaining spot orders of around $25 million from the visiting foreign buyers.
It is planned that EXPO PAKISTAN will be a regular annual feature like the India International Trade Fair held in New Delhi every year and similar international fair held in any other countries. Expo 2005 will be the first such event and it will provide many insights about management, publicity, cultural events, seminars and workshops.
(The writer is Assistant Director EPB).