KARACHI: UAE’s top manufacturers and suppliers of firefighting equipment plan to set up facilities in Pakistan amid a growing market size and demand for the products, officials told Arab News on Tuesday.

Several firms participated in the Fire and Safety Asia event – part of the 19th edition of the three-day ITCN Asia exhibition – where they displayed state-of-the-art products for firefighting purposes.

However, the officials said that slow growth of the economy acted as the main hindrance to executing their plans in Pakistan.

“Setting up a manufacturing facility is one of our plan, but economically it is not the right time to execute the decision. However, it is our plan and we are working on it,” Engineer Ali A. Salem, Export Manager of NAFFCO, a Dubai-based manufacturer and supplier of life safety solutions for firefighting equipment told Arab News.

As a company that exports to more than 100 countries, NAFFCO has also been marketing firefighting equipment to various sectors in Pakistan, including textile and construction, for more than 10 years.

“The market size and awareness is growing in Pakistan,” Salem said, adding that he’s “optimistic that we will do something in Pakistan.”

FESCO International, another Dubai-based company which is marketing its products in Pakistan, has shown its willingness to start a manufacturing facility in the country. “It is our first direct approach to exhibit in Karachi. Our core product is firefighting pumps”, Ibrahim Ariqat, Sales Director of FESCO, told Arab News.

“Pakistan’s market is huge and growing but the current year is not good in terms of economic performance. We hope that in the coming days, things will improve and business will be back to normal,” Ariqat said.

It’s a sentiment shared by foreign and local exhibitors who said that the current market size has only tapped 10 percent of its complete potential.

“The awareness for the utilization of fire protection products in Pakistan is minimal due to lack of knowledge only industries which have installed costly equipment want to protect them,” Muhammad Haseen, Sales Manager of Fakhari Brothers, a Pakistani company with international presence told Arab News.

Many also see the current taxation structure as one of the main hurdles for investing in Pakistan’s firefighting industry.

“Our principal wanted to set up a manufacturing facility in Pakistan but he backed out due to the cumbersome and frequently changing taxation structure,” Arif Salam, a distributor of Honeywell safety products said.