Various agreements and Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) have been signed between Pakistani companies and foreign firms on the second day of 6th Expo Pakistan, which are aimed to create new trade opportunities for Pakistani industries.
Chromium and other industries from Information Technology sector signed over $300 million worth of trade deals with different international organisations during the 2nd day of this international event.
For the first time a Hong Kong based company Ormita Commerce Network, which operates as an international barter exchange platform and currently facilitating approximately $2.66 billion transaction per annum, has struck a strategic investment deal with Pakistani firm Alpha Dairies to launch Operation in Pakistan.
Under the agreement signed, the foreign firm plans to conduct more than $120 million of bilateral trade within 12 months of the finalisation of the deal, said Daniel Evans Chief Executive Officer of Ormita.
Talking to Profit, he said that for the first time the ‘barter business’ is being launched in Pakistan under which his company would play a third party role for imports, as government itself can acquire high-tech machineries and commodities from Ormita network participants across the globe and it can pay the dues by using its own under utilised resources or raw materials.
According to Daniel, all kinds of machineries, equipments and other goods could be imported through the barter business with the exchange of raw materials or other available products in Pakistan. Since Pakistan is currently facing several risks, including financial deficit, energy crisis and political instability, for any investment in Pakistan, the barter system is the only solution for any foreign investment in Pakistan. Currently barter system accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the world’s total business, and this is the best solution for a country to build trade relations with other countries in the absence of interest from foreign investments.
“Ormita is currently representing non-cash trading for more than 0.21 million traders across 54 different countries, and it is operating this huge amount of trade through 21 offices in different counties. Pakistan, rather than a cash payment, can exchange it’s under utilised resources or raw materials as a payment for the services or high-tech machineries imported from Ormita” he added.
The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan CEO met with CCPIT China Vice Chairman Huang Shan, Malaysia State Minister Haji Abdul Malik, and other importers. He said that fruitful discussions were made with the dignitaries from China, Japan, UK, USA, France, Brazil, Greece, Argentina, Madagascar, Belgium, South Africa, South Korea, Poland, Malaysia, Nigeria, New Zeeland, India, Panama and Colombia.
The foreign buyers, who met the concerned Pakistani companies’ representatives during the exhibitions have informed him that majority of them had good deals with the country’s exporters and also have placed orders worth millions of dollars.
Earlier, Tariq Rafi, Chief Executive of Siddiquesons Limited, claimed that his company has received import orders worth millions of dollars from buyers from Argentina, Brazil, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Japan and USA as they were interested in denim imports. Almost half of the visiting countries were new customers for this sector.
He said the exporters of denim and other textile items were satisfied with the developments and trade deals made during the 6th Expo as they had received a good response from the foreigners.
