RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Senior Vice President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Shaikh Khalid Tawab, has urged the government to provide banking and other trade facilities for exploring African untapped market.

At present, Pakistan has not been able to realize the full potential of trade despite enjoying cordial relations with the African countries. Lack of confidence due to non-availability of banking channel is one of the reasons of this low trade, he added.

He also pointed out that Kenya, Mauritius, Ghana, South Africa and Morocco were the gateway to African continent due to geographical position and Pakistan should explore these markets.

He emphasized on exploration of African market, which is the second largest continent of the world with 54 sovereign states and a collective GDP of $2.3 trillion and imports market of $513.5 billion.

He added that Pakistan has huge potential in the traditional exports to these countries like rice, sports goods, mangoes, surgical instruments, pharmaceutical products, leather, dairy products, fresh vegetable and fruits and textile items.

The present volume of Pakistan’s export to Africa region is just $1.66 billion which is unsatisfactory as compared to India which is exporting $ 25.5 billion. He suggested that Pakistan should send fact-finding missions to Africa for exploring business opportunities. “For this purpose, Pakistan can utilize embassies or trade missions in that region with the objectives of exploring long-term sustainable export market,” he added.   He emphasized that all embassies of Pakistan should open a display centre in their premises for showcasing exportable products of Pakistan.

He further elaborated that Africa is a varied continent in term of living standard and productive economies which demanded different range of products in term of quality.

He further stated that the African continent can also be a suitable place for branding the Pakistani products as this will help in sustainability of the market exports and at the same time there is less competition in this region and fewer requirements of Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures and other technical certifications.

He also highlighted that a significant majority of the population is Muslim in Africa, which also represents the potential for Halal products.

Due to the scarce supply of Halal products in the world, there is a great opportunity for Pakistan to capture this market as a supplier of Halal certified products to African countries.