 KARACHI: The President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Majyd Aziz, in an interview with The News talks about his recent trip to the USA and how he thinks the political situation is likely to affect the country’s economy. Here is what he has to say.
Note: The Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C) played an instrumental role in hosting the KCCI delegation and facilitating their meetings with Members of Congress, their staff, and American businesses and business leaders.
Q: How was your journey and what was the aim of it?
A: This trip to the US was the first ever by any KCCI delegation. We didn’t go for any individual gains, and the main objective was to promote Pakistan. We discussed bilateral trade, intellectual property rights, market access, the image of Pakistan as an investment hub, prospects of SMEs, etc.
We went to convince that America needs to invest here, especially Americans of Pakistani origin as their roots are in Pakistan. An interesting fact that we noticed was that Americans are finally accepting Pakistan as an investment hub with good opportunities other than India with whom they’ve always had strong ties.
Q: How successful was your trip?
A: It was the first time we had one-to-one discussion. People think America is trying to destroy the Muslim world, which is untrue.
America itself wants to move away from political talks and in fact they want to have a 15-year long-term economic commitment with our country which is now more reformed and intensive than ever before.
Other than this, we had four roundtable conferences to discuss the Kashmir issue at the economic level. You see we went as businessmen but became diplomats and politicians! Apart from this we also met about eight Congressmen individually and spoke on political issues which seemed to be a success.
Q: Would such meetings be held again with the US or any other country?
A: Some European diplomats have invited me to their country so that we can have similar meetings with them, too. But nothing has been confirmed so far.
Q: Did Americans promise to visit Pakistan?
A: A delegation from Texas has confirmed with the KCCI to visit Pakistan in spring 2008.
Q: What has America got to say about the technology standards of Pakistan? How far are they willing to aid our manufacturing sector?
A: We are far behind America in technology! It is easy to talk about technology transfer, but it has many aspects that need to be looked into. For example, there are intellectual property rights, company policies, etc. that cause obstacles.
These things need to be discussed at the Ministry of Commerce or by the nazims of the cities concerned.
My advice is that a body should be constituted to discuss trade and investments and local talent can go there for training at their companies. That is how technology cab be brought into the country.
Q: What would you like to say about the current political situation? How much does it affect our economy?
A: In spite of the so-called political instability I say this is the creation of political ‘jonnies.’ It doesn’t affect the rest of the country and neither does it affect the businesses. Musharraf has done a good job in stabilising the economy. Fact is fact. Look at where we were in 1998 and compare it with the present. I’m sure even the opposition parties are well aware of what the president has done for Pakistan.
One thing that I want you to mention here is that none of the political parties have come up with any economic agenda, or manifesto.
What are they waiting for? They should come up with economic policies with the same passion as they show when they talk about ruling the masses. All these parties are power hungry. |
