Faiza Tehseen

Sialkot is one of the main business and trade hubs adding precious foreign exchange to the state wallets.Surgical instruments, sports goods, leather products, musical instruments, and a lot of other products are manufactured and exported from here. A huge manpower is employed here to earn a living. To keep the industrial and trade systems going, many working bodies along with the government departments are active here. Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) is one of them, which is acting as a bridge among the trade and business communities, government, national, and multinational bodies.

Talking to WealthPK about the promotion, development, and automation of trade and business setups, the SCCI Public Relations Officer (PRO) Tajamul Hussain Sachal said, “Sialkot is one of the large business pivots concerning the export and import activities. The SCCI is keen to launch new projects to accelerate trade and business activities, i.e., enhancement of the existing trade zones, the establishment of new and modern industrial estates, and arranging regular workshops and different training sessions.

All these steps are expected to improve the already existing conventional trade and business networks. The addition of a technological approach is important to play a key role in the trade market of Pakistan for the development of economic cycle.”Tajamul said the projects for the promotion of business activities by the SCCI are Sialkot Business and Commerce Centre, Sports Industry Development Centre, Sialkot Export Processing Zone, Sialkot International Airport, Sialkot Dry Port Trust, Sialkot Transport Company (STC), Air Sial, Khud Kafaalat Rozgaar Trust, etc.

Continuing the discussion, he said Pakistan had a great potential to enhance exports. He said the country had a good number of entrepreneurs, expert workers, skilled youth, and worthy-to-grow business entities and proper guidance could make all those business entities highly productive and export-oriented.

“The other allied factors directly affecting the business are the sustainability perspective, change in the consumer behaviour towards buying, brand adoption, development in supply chains, distribution models, and developing business models, etc. To overcome all these challenges, it is important to make the trade and business communities well aware of the importance of automation.”

Continuing, he said, “Integration of technology in every business aspect is necessary to execute. Electricity plays a key role in keeping the automation process on track. It is very disappointing that the federal government has backed out of the subsidized electric tariffs for most of the export-oriented sectors. This decision has discouraged the development of export sector to a great extent.”

The SCCI public relations officer said the government was already facing challenges to frame policies necessary for the ease of business doing. He said the traders and business community both were trying to increase exports. He said, “Decisions like withdrawal of subsidies on electricity for the industrial units have shaken the export sector to a large extent. Costly imported raw materials, along with high electricity tariffs, are going to increase the production cost. To keep the economic cycle smooth, the government needs to introduce a flexible policy facilitating the industries to keep their production line going.”

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk