LONDON – Ireland’s largest dealer and distributor, Harris group, has arrived in Pakistan to conduct meetings with state officials proposing to build a truck manufacturing facility, reports The Times.
The paper said Robert Harris, the millionaire trucking magnate, is in negotiations with the Pakistani government to set up an entity that would import used Irish trucks into Pakistan, to be reconditioned and sold to local companies. Senior executives from the Harris group, Ireland’s distributor of Hino, Iveco and Isuzu vehicles travelled to Pakistan last week for meetings with the government.
Mark Barrett, its tender manager, presented Pakistani government officials with a proposal to build a manufacturing facility. Harris also wishes to establish a network of truck dealerships in Pakistan, as well as constructing a testing centre for used trucks. According to the paper, Barrett offered an initial investment of three million euros.
“We have been working on this for a year-and-a-half,said Barrett. We want to export used trucks from Ireland, rebuild them using local people and sell them on,” he stressed. The Harris group has received the backing of Naghmana Hashmi, the Pakistani ambassador to Ireland. Barrett said that the proposal could not proceed without Pakistani government support. “The ball is in their court now”, he said.
A new Pakistani government policy to overhaul the industry provides that trucks should be upgraded to European quality standards. He insisted that his organisation is up to meeting the requirement of testing. He also noted that it would be open to doing it on a public-private partnership with the government, said Barrett. As for opening dealerships, he stated that the company was waiting for a reaction from the government.
