‘Role of chambers of commerce needs to be enhanced’

Fairs and exhibitions not enough to enhance trade.

KARACHI:

The chambers of commerce and industry must enhance their role and fulfill their responsibilities in a better and more practical way, according to Harvest Tradings CEO Ahmad Jawad.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, he said, “Our chambers should have a vision and create a long-term strategy for the private sector and fight for its implementation, but unfortunately they just stick to issuing press releases.”

He asserted that Pakistan is rich in agriculture, mines, textile, sports and surgical instruments, and the private sector has been making exports on their own contacts. “Trade fairs and exhibitions are not the only solution which the government has been concentrating on holding every year.”

“We have to clear our image internationally and prove ourselves,” he added. He said that international investors are interested in investing in Pakistan but due to lack of extra efforts and follow-up on potential trade relations, the nation has missed out on millions of dollars worth of trade.

In defence of business chambers, Senator Ghulam Ali, President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the apex body with which most associations are registered, said that chambers try their best to address all the problems faced by the business community.

He said that most of the chambers address issues on country-level basis, particularly of industrialists, therefore, sometimes small traders complain that their issues are not being addressed. Ali said chambers have played a very pivotal role in taking business delegations to foreign countries, due to which trade worth billions of dollars has been achieved.

Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) Project Manager Hammad Siddiqui said that most chambers are operational only for their members. “A chamber’s constituency is its members and if they are happy, then it means the chamber is working successfully. Any non-member cannot criticise,” he said.

CIPE has worked with most major local chambers of commerce and played a pivotal role in bringing about reforms in them.

Siddiqui said that while there are some chambers that are not performing up to the mark, every chamber can do better to enhance trade.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2011.