Blast to have repercussions for already depressed trade

Business owners assert latest blast to hit Karachi has caused irreparable damage to the confidence of foreign buyers.

KARACHI: The already suffering businesses and manufacturing units of Karachi shook once again with the powerful bomb blast that targeted the CID building on Thursday night. The tragic event deepened the fears of foreign buyers who were already reluctant to come to the country in order to place industrial orders.

Business owners assert that the latest blast to hit the economic hub of Pakistan has caused irreparable damage to the confidence of foreign buyers. No doubt, this will affect the amount of export orders local industries receive.

“With Thursday’s blast, we believe we have gone back at least three to four years in business. In the current situation, no foreign buyer will come to Pakistan,” said Feroz Alam Lari, CEO of Afroze Textile Industries Private Limited – one of the largest exporters of towels and bed sheets.

“The image of Karachi is just like Nigeria,” he said, adding that efforts of several years to negotiate with buyers had literally evaporated in a matter of hours. “One of our buyers actually returned from the airport just after the Karachi blast.”

The frustration of industrialists is understandable as purchasers typically do feel more comfortable doing business after they actually see the production site or industry. “No buyer will place orders unless he or she sees what the shop actually has to offer,” he added.

Just hours after the blast, television channels – including foreign ones – started airing footages of the bomb site which is right adjacent to the five-star hotel district in Karachi where foreigners tend to stay during their trips to the city. “One cannot help but avoid visiting any such hotel in future. How frightened would one be to see the videos of the hotels where they usually stay,” he questioned.

“The law and order situation has been bad but after this we can expect only worse,” said Sheikh Afzal Hussain, CEO of Hussain Leather Crafts.

He pointed out that purchasers were usually lured to come to Karachi on the plea that it was quite far from the more volatile northern region and the Pak-Afghan border. “I don’t think anyone will believe us after this bomb blast,” he admitted.

Owing to the deteriorating law and order situation, exporters are forced to meet buyers either abroad or in international exhibitions, said Hussain.

Over the past few years exporters have been forced to meet buyers in the Far or Middle East and such meetings abroad are likely to increase – at least in the near future.

Meanwhile, a top towel exporter from Karachi, Sheikh Manzar Alam, claimed that foreign buyers have not been coming to the country for at least 10 years now. “We have been meeting with our buyers in Cambodia, Singapore or Dubai for a long time because no foreigner wants to visit Pakistan owing to security concerns.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2010.