TDAP holds 'Buying & Sourcing Houses Symposium'

Participants of an event on Wednesday urged the government to provide incentives and subsidized office space for buying houses that are eager to come back to Pakistan years after they had left the country citing security concerns. The request came at 'Buying & Sourcing Houses Symposium' organised by the Commerce Division and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) here at a local hotel.
Representatives of buying houses on this occasion said many buying houses relocated out of Pakistan due to law and order situation a few years back. But now the security situation has been improved, and buying houses should be provided incentives in terms of subsidized office space to bring them back to the country.
They underscored the need of establishing sourcing parks in the country where all facilities required by the buying houses are provided through a one-window facility. It was also proposed that for the improvement of social compliances by the manufacturers which was increasingly becoming an important critical determinant of sourcing decisions, a National Compliance Centre may be set up which coordinates the improvement of compliances on cooperative model.
The participants also proposed incentivizing innovation for the manufacturers under the upcoming Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2018-23 (STPF). The Secretary Commerce Mohammad Younus Dagha, Member Customs FBR Zahid Khokhar, Executive Director General Board of Investment Fareena Mazhar, Secretary TDAP Inamullah Khan, and Director State Bank of Pakistan Muhammad Ashraf participated as panellists.
Speaking on the occasion, secretary commerce stated that buyers and sourcing agents play an important role in enhancing exports of a country by acting as a bridge between manufacturers and foreign buyers. The latest international trends in products especially textile, leather and footwear are set by the sourcing agents as per demand of the foreign buyers. Ministry of Commerce has been in the process of formulation of STPF - 2018-23.
Member customs highlighted the improvements made by the Federal Board of Revenue in streamlining the procedures for import and export which has decreased the dwell time of containers at the ports. The BoI Executive Director General stated that government had recently taken a series of initiatives for improving the ease of doing business and it was hoped that the Pakistan's ranking in the Doing Business Index of the World Bank will improve in the next survey.