Road and rails: Businessmen gather to review logistics network

Railways and shipping, not roads, required to sustain business, say experts.

KARACHI:

Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping, Kamran Michael, has said that the government is going to place an advanced information technology database and container tracking system in one month to avoid incidents of stealing from Afghan and Nato containers’ supply.

Michael was speaking to media at the 3rd conference on shipping, logistics and supply chain management 2013 at hotel Marriott on Thursday.

“This new tracking system will certainly discourage stealing of containers and smuggling under the Afghan Transit Trade as it would be linked with the department of customs,” he said.

The present government intends to give all possible support to ports and its allied industries, said Michael, adding that his government gives the utmost importance to the development of country’s ports.



The Federal Minister also said that the government has planned to complete different infrastructural works on Gwadar Port in next five months. The port is being linked with other parts of the country and the construction work on these link roads have progressed significantly. Gwadar port is important for both Pakistan and China, which is why both countries are looking forward for its development and success, he added.

The annual conference attracted experts and top managers from the shipping, logistics and supply chain industry of the country.

Sindh Board of Investment Chairman Zubair Motiwala, said that Pakistan is heavily dependent upon its road network for internal trade, which is not only costly but also unsustainable. If Pakistan wants to develop a cost effective and sustainable transport system, it will have to revive its vibrant railway system.

“In my own opinion, the rise of the National Logistics Cell (NLC) is directly responsible for the debacle of Pakistan Railways (PR), which used to handle most of the upcountry commercial transport until the formation of NLC in 1978,” he said.

Railways are more cost effective than trucks because a single locomotive can take 100 containers in one go this is why most countries prefer railways, said Zubair. The revival of railways is so important for the country that even if the private sector or NLC wants to run the commercial operations of PR, they must be encouraged to take part in bidding or the privation of different operations of PR, he explained.

Speaking on improvements in logistics sector, General Shipping Agencies (GSA) Managing Director Mohammed Rajpar said that shipping sector has shown very good growth in last few years. For instance, different sectors have grown from 6% to 15% on average in last few years, which is a very good omen for the industry, he said.

Like other experts, Rajpar highlighted the importance of railways compared to the road network. “Pakistan Railways should have an independent management in any case that can decide what is good and what is bad for it commercially,” he said.

Experts opined that the efficiency of country’s road transport system has jumped up significantly in last few years but the country is still losing $2.6 billion annually because of inefficiencies in its logistics.

They urged leading business houses in Pakistan to reinvest their profits into the training of human resource and especially into the infrastructure of the country.

They argued that those business groups, who have heavily invested in their human resource and infrastructure, especially in last 5 years, have grown much faster than those who parked their profits outside the country.

One panellist argued that Pakistanis lost billions of dollars in Dubai’s real estate crisis during 2007-2009 period because they were looking for easy money outside the country. Those who invested their profits in infrastructure and human resource and kept their trust in their businesses gained a lot compared to those investors who were looking outside the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2013.

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