He said that despite negative travel advisories, ministers, business and opinion leaders from 77 countries had come to attend the Expo, which constituted a big boost for the country's exports. It would also help in correcting the image of Karachi city tarnished due to bad law and order situation.
The Minister said that among the foreign guests and buyers the majority was from new companies and buying houses from USA and Europe, which would definitely have a positive impact on exports.
He said that he had been meeting trade delegations during the last two days. The French trade delegation informed him that they were impressed to see the progress Pakistan had made in the textile sector. The South Korean business group said that it wanted to set technology upgradation centre for manufacturing surgical instruments in Pakistan for export.
Humayun dismissed the suggestion that majority of 1152 foreign visitors were either Chinese or overseas Pakistanis. He said that the number of Chinese visiting the Expo was only 60 and the figure was not very high in view of close friendly relations with China. He praised the efforts of Pakistani commercial offices and embassies to arrange visit of 1152 buyers from 77 countries.
He said that signing of as many as 17 MOUs by the FPCCI, KCCI, and SITE Association was enough proof of the success of the show. "We have brought the buyers and exporters under one roof and now it was up to them to enter into business deals," he said, responding to a question about the amount of business expected from 'Expo-2005'.
The Minister pointed out that some buyers were refused invitation to the Expo because people from major markets were preferred over buyers from small markets due to shortage of hotel accommodation for the show.
Humayun said that he had informed the Kenyan trade delegation of the seriousness of the problem created from increase in import duty on rice from Pakistan. They have promised to release 200 rice containers stuck up due to change in duty structure.
Secretary Commerce Tasneem Noorani told the press conference that response was more than what was expected by the stall holders. He said that he collected the information by visiting various stalls and those who missed the display chance were regretting.