President Alvi to open first-ever ‘multimodal logistics conference’ today

ISLAMABAD: To initiate a public policy debate on multimodal logistics and freight services focusing on their pivotal role in national trade growth, President Dr Arif Alvi will inaugurate Pakistan’s first-ever multimodal logistics conference “Trade Growth of Pakistan through Multimodal Logistics” here on Thursday (today).

The one-day conference will be featuring interactive sessions and insightful debates on a diverse range of topics focusing national industry of multimodal and freight networks.

The conference would be attended by federal ministers, federal secretaries of different ministries/divisions, senior government officials, representatives of renowned logistics organizations along with stakeholders and members of the business community. Representatives of the institutions will be shedding light on the institutional role in different relevant sectors.

The conference is being organized by Manzil Pakistan, a Karachi-based think tank in collaboration with All Pakistan Shipping Association (APSA) while US Agency for International Development (USAID), Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT), JS Bank, and Faysal Bank Ltd are the event partners.

The initiative to organize the first Multimodal Logistics Conference is led by Aasim A Siddiqui, Vice Chairman of Manzil Pakistan. Over the last 25 years, Aasim Siddiqui has developed and financed various transport and logistics projects in Pakistan with a diverse portfolio in the shipping, logistics and cargo handling industry.

About this initiative, Siddiqui highlighted that Pakistan eagerly needs a thematic change and complete remodeling to integrate the multimodal logistics scenario in its stepping forward economy. Though, trade and multimodal logistics are two different sectors but taken as lifelines for each one.

He further emphasized that despite having a National Freight and Logistics Policy (NFLP) in place, the sector is still fragmented and policies in relation to its integration require considerable deliberation by public authorities, therefore, Manzil Pakistan has taken the lead to organize this conference to bring all stakeholders both from the private sector and public authorities to initiate a public policy debate to benefit the country.

Through specialized sessions, the conference programme will comprehensively cover different sectors of the trade transport industry.

The technical sessions will kick off with “Public-Private Sector Institutional Harmony for Integrated Multimodal logistics in Pakistan”.

The session will be chaired by Dr Ishrat Hussain, former advisor to the Prime Minister on institutional reforms & austerity and ex-Governor State Bank of Pakistan. This is followed by an exclusive session chaired by Mahmood Baqi Moulvi, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Maritime Affairs titled “Optimizing Blue Economy: Issues and Challenges” will be presenting an overview of Pakistan’s Maritime and shipping industry.

To discuss the importance of highways in the logistics industry, participants would be sharing their viewpoints in a session chaired by Chairman Board of Investment Muhammad Azfar Ahsan on the theme of “Connecting Highways with Smart Hinterland Transport Network”.

A special session will be chaired by Secretary Railways on Railway Freight services and their valuable part in the national logistics network will be discussed in a specified session “Business Enabling Environment: Empowering Private Sector in Rail-Freight Business”.

Keeping in view the importance of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an exclusive session “CPEC, Regional Connectivity for Trade & Domestic Commerce” has been scheduled which would be addressed by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on CPEC Authority Khalid Mansoor.

This session would not only be encompassing the importance of regional connectivity but the future of domestic commerce and foreign investments in Pakistan would also be discussed. The conference will be concluded by Ameena Saiyid OBE, Member, Board of Trustees, Manzil along with other dignitaries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022