Hardly a day goes by without some business chamber urging the government to do this and not do that. Rarely, it seems that the claims and counter-claims are supported by independent research. Is business, which should be comfortable with numbers over opinions and be swayed by cold logic over emotion, really averse to the power of research-based advocacy in Pakistan?
There are about 46 chambers of commerce and industry (CCIs) in Pakistan. For evidence-based lobbying, CCIs ought to build their research capacity. BR Research set about a little online errand and looked for existence of research departments within the CCIs of 13 prominent Pakistani cities. It turns out that only six of them - Faisalabad, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Sialkot - have an internal research and development (R&D) department.
The case for more research departments in more chambers depends on how well the existing research centres within chambers have done so far. Based on BR Research's background discussions, it seems that these departments are a long way off from doing research that can fuel serious advocacy. There are a number of issues due to which that kind of research work at chambers seems like a Herculean task.
First, the research departments exist largely in name only. "Some research work is happening under the chambers hood. But there is little original research, and it is mostly based on the same secondary data that everyone else has access to," said Hammad Siddiqui, acting country director, Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). CIPE Pakistan, an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce that focuses on private enterprise and market-oriented reforms, has been engaged with chambers on advocacy-related reforms for many years.
Two, the research focus is lacking, partly because the change in governments lax attitude is slow to come about. "If the government can correct its policy after looking at evidence shared by business chambers, it will increase the value of research and encourage more chambers to produce such work. While we have noticed a positive change in government attitude, the pace of change is slow," said Dr. Shimail Daud Arain, former President of the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (RCCI).
According to Siddiqui of CIPE, chamber advocacy rings hollow in the absence of detailed research. "Unless chambers come up with position papers, their proposals for a change in government policy are only a wish list. Every year, many chambers present their budgetary proposals to the federal government. But the finance and commerce ministries dont have time to read those 5,000 pages."
Three, chambers often get consumed with the usual tasks - issuing visa recommendation letters, performing attestation and certification work, conducting fairs and exhibitions, etc. - with research becoming an afterthought.
Engr. Suhail bin Rashid, former President of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), says that the real challenge is not to set up the R&D department, but to keep it independent of political influences and to shield it from distractions of day-to-day chamber affairs. "Quality research needs time and effort. But the problem is that R&D folks get too consumed in daily affairs. They need to be separated from rest of the chamber activities so that they can focus on their work."
Four, the yearly chamber elections mean that short-term priorities of incoming presidents may interfere with the long-term pursuit that is advocacy-based research. Almas Hyder, former Senior Vice President at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) told BR Research, "Currently the chambers are effectively a lobbying body. There is no consistent thought process as there is a change of guard every year."
And five, an internal demand for research seems amiss. Negotiating with the government is just one aspect of research-based advocacy. Chambers also need to produce research that is valuable for their members. Towards that end, Siddiqui from CIPE exhorts the chamber elite to stop spending money on lunches and dinners and start spending on structured advocacy for reforms.
These issues, and more, will remain impediments to a behaviour change towards rational, fact-based business advocacy. Research is best done when it is a demand-driven phenomenon. In the next column, BR Research will highlight a few solutions to the research predicament at chambers. Watch this space.
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