Pakistan is the 25th-largest economy in the world. The country has a sound manufacturing base and well-developed agriculture and service sectors. Additionally, the country is abundantly blessed with natural resources.
It is the sixth-most populated country in the world, and 60 percent of the population is young. Geographically, it is ideally located between east and west.
All these factors make Pakistan ideally placed to become one of the world’s leading trade partners.
Despite having all the positive essentials of an export hub, annual global exports from Pakistan are only about $20 billion, much lower than its potential. This untapped potential provides the best opportunity for investors across the globe looking for maximum returns on their investments.
The following are some of the best avenues for investment in the emerging Pakistan.
The textiles sector is the mainstay of our exports sector which, together with cotton and yarn, accounts for more than half the total value of Pakistan’s annual exports.
Pakistan is one of the few countries where the complete value chain of textiles manufacturing exists. Pakistan annually produces more than 11 million bales of cotton. The cotton is domestically ginned and then spun into yarn by a robust spinning sector. Weaving, knitting and processing sectors produce a wide variety of fabrics that are stitched to produce world-class garments.
The blossoming fashion industry renders ultimate value-added products. However, some of the subsectors are not completely integrated. Due to value-chain constraints, Pakistan exports more than $3.5 billion of cotton, yarn and woven fabric each year.
These are relatively low value-added products and the proper placement of value-chain addition through investment can bring three to four-fold export proceeds and a handsome return for investors.
Similar potential for huge value-addition exists in other sectors. Gems and jewelry are one example.
Emeralds mined from the Swat region are considered some of the best in the world. Careful mining of precious and semi-precious stones through advanced equipment, and artful cutting, polishing and rendering into jewelry, immensely increases the value of finished products. There is equally great scope for product diversification, as is the potential for raising new sectors.
Pakistan has overcome to a great extent its short-term issues affecting the exports sector. The law and order situation has long been restored to normalcy. The success of the Expo Pakistan event in November 2017 in Karachi is clear testimony to this.
Hundreds of business delegates from throughout the world participated in this mega event and discussed and concluded business agreements with their Pakistani counterparts. In view of the interest of investors and businessmen traveling to Pakistan, the government has recently relaxed its business visa regime.
Great emphasis has been laid on improving energy availability. More than 10,000 MW of electricity is being added in the national grid as a result of recent initiatives. After operationalization of all energy-generating projects, there will be surplus electricity. Already the situation regarding industrial load shedding has been markedly improved. In addition to this, the State Bank of Pakistan has recently made adjustments to its exchange rate regime to make it more attractive to exporters.
These interventions have started to yield positive results. After registering negative growth over the past four years, exports from Pakistan are picking up. The first six months of the current financial year have seen a more than 11 percent increase in our exports, and the trend is continuing. February 2018 registered the highest month-on-month increase of 16 percent in the dollar value of exported commodities.
Apart from immediate measures, the government is pursuing a comprehensive plan of medium to long-term interventions aimed at realizing the true export potential of Pakistan.
To enhance the competitiveness and strengthen the manufacturing base, a number of schemes have been launched to help industry modernize its machinery; improving access to utilities; enhancing labor productivity; and ensuring quality infrastructure. Apart from schemes for the general industry, the government has incentivized the setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that additionally provide the benefits of subsectors integration, improved connectivity and economies of scale.
In addition to already notified SEZs, the government has recently announced the setting up of nine more zones along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to better leverage emerging opportunities in the region.
Product diversification and branding are also being given attention. Dedicated funds have been set up aimed at promoting research and development. Pakistan has elaborate laws and the necessary organizational setup for the effective protection of intellectual property rights to provide a conducive environment for promotion innovation.
Pakistan is also moving toward achieving more market diversification and improved market access. The “Look Africa” plan is a part of such efforts. Pakistan has achieved some notable successes in the field of trade diplomacy in 2018. In January, successful negotiations earned unilateral concessions by Indonesia in 20 tariff lines. In February this year, Pakistan successfully had the GSP Plus facility reviewed by the EU Parliamentary Committee on International Trade. The committee expressed satisfaction over the progress made by Pakistan and decided in favor of the continuation of the facility.
In short, Pakistan is poised and ready to become a regional hub of connectivity, investment and productivity and the coming days will witness the emergence of this nuclear power as a significant player on the global trade landscape.
“Emerging Pakistan” is the best place for all investors, specially investors from Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s exports potential: Growth opportunities and strategy
Pakistan’s exports potential: Growth opportunities and strategy
AI will never replace human creativity, says SRMG CEO
- Speaking to Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, Jomana R. Alrashid expressed pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI
RIYADH: Jomana R. Alrashid, CEO of Saudi Research and Media Group, highlighted how AI cannot replace human creativity during a session at The Family Office’s “Investing Is a Sea” summit at Shura Island on Friday.
“You can never replace human creativity. Journalism at the end of the day, and content creation, is all about storytelling, and that’s a creative role that AI does not have the power to do just yet,” Alrashid told the investment summit.
“We will never eliminate that human role which comes in to actually tell that story, do the actual investigative reporting around it, make sure to be able to also tell you what’s news or what’s factual from what’s wrong ... what’s a misinformation from bias, and that’s the bigger role that the editorial player does in the newsroom.”
Speaking on the topic of AI, moderated by Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, the CEO expressed her pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI in a way that was “transformative.”
“We are now translating all of our content leveraging AI. We are also now being able to create documentaries leveraging AI. We now have AI-facilitated fact-checking, AI facilities clipping, transcribing. This is what we believe is the future.”
Alrashid was asked what the journalist of the future would look like. “He’s a journalist and an engineer. He’s someone who needs to understand data. And I think this is another topic that is extremely important, understanding the data that you’re working with,” she said.
“This is something that AI has facilitated as well. I must say that over the past 20 years in the region, especially when it comes to media companies, we did not understand the importance of data.”
The CEO highlighted that previously, media would rely on polling, surveys or viewership numbers, but now more detailed information about what viewers wanted was available.
During the fireside session, Alrashid was asked how the international community viewed the Middle Eastern media. Alrashid said that over the past decades it had played a critical role in informing wider audiences about issues that were extremely complex — politically, culturally and economically — and continued to play that role.
“Right now it has a bigger role to play, given the role again of social media, citizen journalists, content creators. But I also do believe that it has been facilitated by the power that AI has. Now immediately, you can ensure that that kind of content that is being created by credible, tier-A journalists, world-class journalists, can travel beyond its borders, can travel instantly to target different geographies, different people, different countries, in different languages, in different formats.”
She said that there was a big opportunity for Arab media not to be limited to simply Arab consumption, but to finally transcend borders and be available in different languages and to cater to their audiences.
The CEO expressed optimism about the future, emphasizing the importance of having a clear vision, a strong strategy, and full team alignment.
Traditional advertising models, once centered on television and print, were rapidly changing, with social media platforms now dominating advertising revenue.
“It’s drastically changing. Ultimately in the past, we used to compete with one another over viewership. But now we’re also competing with the likes of social media platforms; 80 percent of the advertising revenue in the Middle East goes to the social media platforms, but that means that there’s 80 percent interest opportunities.”
She said that the challenge was to create the right content on these platforms that engaged the target audiences and enabled commercial partnerships. “I don’t think this is a secret, but brands do not like to advertise with news channels. Ultimately, it’s always related with either conflict or war, which is a deterrent to advertisers.
“And that’s why we’ve entered new verticals such as sports. And that’s why we also double down on our lifestyle vertical. Ultimately, we have the largest market share when it comes to lifestyle ... And we’ve launched new platforms such as Billboard Arabia that gives us an entry into music.”
Alrashid said this was why the group was in a strong position to counter the decline in advertising revenues across different platforms, and by introducing new products.
“Another very important IP that we’ve created is events attached to the brands that have been operating in the region for 30-plus years. Any IP or any title right now that doesn’t have an event attached to it is missing out on a very big commercial opportunity that allows us to sit in a room, exchange ideas, talk to one another, get to know one another behind the screen.”
The CEO said that disruption was now constant and often self-driving, adding that the future of the industry was often in storytelling and the ability to innovate by creating persuasive content that connected directly with the audience.
“But the next disruption is going to continue to come from AI. And how quickly this tool and this very powerful technology evolves. And whether we are in a position to cope with it, adapt to it, and absorb it fully or not.”
