Pakistan is planning to establish a ‘trade center’ at Dubai World Trade Center, a leading destination for exhibitions, conferences and events situated at the heart of the Middle East, to exhibit the country’s products internationally. The proposed ‘Pakistan Trade Center Dubai’ is aimed to boost the country’s exports especially in the Middle East and Gulf region, sources said.
The center, which is being established at a cost of millions of rupees, would be used to organize trade events, display of Pakistani products, and hold conferences aimed to attract foreign investment. As Dubai now attracts more tourists than France, more ships than Singapore and more foreign capital than many European countries, the facility in the foreign country would certainly help the exporters to introduce their products and search for newer horizons abroad.
The creation of the new center was proposed by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and Ministry of Commerce. A team of the concerned authorities is also likely to visit the foreign country for inspection of the proposed center shortly, sources have claimed.
Establishment of a warehouse is also under consideration to be located in Dubai, as some importers and buyers, sources have said, demanded the creation of the warehouse to ensure the availability of products at Dubai Port due to their apprehensions about security.
However, sources claimed that the country, previously, had the same centers in New York, Rotterdam and Saudi Arabia, but they had failed to produce desired results. A litigation case of thousands of dollars was still ongoing regarding the Trade Center in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan had a trade center in Dubai previously as well but it could not be kept running because of high expenses with little positive impacts, they claimed. They said that exporters and traders should be consulted by the government before opening the center as they could suggest the ministry and TDAP about their requirements from the trade center. According to a report, Pakistani embassy in Dubai was expecting that bilateral trade between UAE and Pakistan was likely to touch a record $9 billion with an increase of 8 to 10 per cent during financial year 2010-11 as a result of increased demand for its products over the past few months. Out of the expected $9 billion trade volume Pakistani imports were likely to be around $7 billion. Pakistan’s exports to the UAE were expected to increase to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion in 2009-10 due to higher crude prices and higher demand for items like chemicals, machinery and heavy equipment.
