By Muhammad Soban ISLAMABAD, 28 March (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan is one of the top surgical instruments manufacturers globally and has the potential to boost its exports by adopting modern technology and utilising the contribution of skilled manpower. In the first seven months (July-Jan) of the fiscal year 2021-22, Pakistan’s exports of surgical instruments declined by 3.63 percent to $241.42 million  compared with $250.52 million during the corresponding period of the previous year. Pakistan surgical instruments exports were the highest during the last five years at $407 million in FY 2019-20. In 2020-21, Pakistan exported surgical instruments worth $362 million, 11.19% less than 2019-20. Along with other reasons, the Covid-19 pandemic was the major cause that curtailed the surgical instruments exports, WealthPK reported. The following graph shows the exports of surgical instrument during the past five years. Pakistan’s surgical instruments industry has been contributing significantly to the economy’s exports. About 99% of the total 25,000 surgical instruments producing units are located in Sialkot with the country producing more than 100 million medical, surgical, and veterinary instruments every year. These instruments are exported to 140 countries. The sector employs around 150,000 to 200,000 people directly and indirectly. Production in the Sialkot surgical cluster is mainly an outsourced activity. Global brands outsource their production to skilled companies in Pakistan. To ensure the optimal level of quality, international buyers demand stringent quality standards from Pakistani firms. Pakistan’s surgical instruments’ top destination for exports is Germany, followed by the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The global surgical instruments market size was valued at $9.32 billion in 2020. It is projected that this sector will grow from 2021-28 at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate. Experts believe that Germany is Pakistan's only competitor in the global market. Though Pakistan's surgical instruments sector has excellent potential to increase exports share, there are several challenges that need to be addressed. Despite producing surgical instruments for more than seven decades, Pakistan has not created its own world-class brand as the industry provides services to international distributors or wholesale dealers only. The absence of a brand hinders the industry from directly participating in tender business to cater to the end-user in foreign markets, thus depriving it of buyer bargaining power. By developing its own brands, the surgical industry can enter less-developed markets, and later to developed ones. Pakistani surgical instruments are of high quality compared to other competitors. The industry is losing foreign exchange in the international market due to a lack of marketing and distribution networks. The instruments manufactured in Pakistan are sold at a much higher price for the single reason that they are stamped as ‘made in another country’. The surgical instruments’ production is technology-based, but this industry has flourished without sophisticated technology. The industry faces shortage of qualified and skilled human resources. To cover the deficiency of skilled labourers, unskilled technical workers supervise the technical process of production, which compromises the quality of goods. Pakistan needs to develop more technical training institutes to produce more qualified human resources. In the last few decades, Pakistan has had the advantage of having cheap labour. But now, within the past few years, China and some other countries have also appeared as Pakistan’s competitors in the global market. Besides having the advantage of cheap labour, these countries are technologically superior in innovation and modern materials manufacturing compared to Pakistan. Pakistan should take steps to adopt new technology to keep the advantage of producing low-cost and quality surgical items. Pakistan’s surgical instruments producing industry has the largest number of ISO (International Organisation for Standardization) and GMP (Goods Manufacturing Practices) certified companies, but still some firms need to have ISO certification.