Tariq Saeed FPCCI

Interview with KalPoint.com

KalPoint: When and how did you start your professional life? What difficulties did you have to face to acquire these achievements and triumphs?

Tariq Sayeed: I have struggled a lot in my life. I started my business career with a gift of Rs. 25,000 from my uncle. I have never done any malpractice in business & in my life with the result that I sleep peacefully. I may be the only fortunate business leader from the developing countries who visited IMF head quarters and I am the only business leader from the developing countries who has a privilege of addressing a videoconference sitting in Geneva Head Quarters of UN and the UN General Assembly New York was in session as audience. I am a very fortunate person, when I sleep at night I don’t count how much money I made today, I only count if I have been of any good to any human being today. That is my profit.


KalPoint: What role does the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) play in the economic development of the country?

Tariq Sayeed: First of all we must bring the level of Federation to a standard where we can play that role more effectively. But at the same time we have played a role towards the betterment of economy. Our role is very simple that we try to project the private sector’s point of view. We give recommendations and proposals to the government. It is another argument that it may simply go in to trashcans generally in the past but there is an improvement currently. We have played a positive role and will continue to do so; we have substantial interaction with international business community by being active with the international and regional trade bodies. We are affiliated with G-77 Chamber of Commerce and Industry with its Permanent Secretariat in Pakistan with the Islamic Chamber with its head office in Karachi, with the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and industry with head office in Islamabad and with the ECO secretariat which rotates with the President from respective member countries. The private sector has a commendable role in the economic development of Pakistan.


KalPoint: Since the admissions in IT courses are decreased due to some cir*****stances. How will you elaborate the reason?

Tariq Sayeed: Reasons are very simple. In every field you try to acquire knowledge or experience, you look for a bright future. When there is no job opportunity and no future, gradually every field would see a decline. We have to create job opportunities and in order to create job opportunities we will have to create investments atmosphere in the country. Pakistan has two basic problems one is growth in the economy and second is the investment which are interrelated. When there is no investment there will be no growth in the economy and ultimately the employment situation will become worst. We should produce human recourses for which there is a demand in the market. We must follow the demand of market for the consumption of our professionals. Education and development in the modern economic term go together. Today SriLanka is the only developing country in the world who has 95% literacy rate and have best human resources in the world but the main problem for them are differences with Tamil Tigers. They have been fighting for 20 years. It is my prediction which I expressed in a gathering in presence of the Governor Sindh, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ibad that once Sri Lanka frees itself from this war like situation, it would have maximum economic growth in this region.
I always say that I am not very optimistic about my country even though it is a land of opportunities but we need some one like General Musharraf, President of Pakistan whether in uniform or not and an honest dedicated team to stay at the helm of affairs for atleast 10 years to bring about economic revolution or alternatively develop a consensus amongst all political parties for a long term economic development plan for Pakistan with consistency even if there is a change in the Government.


KalPoint: We would like to have your comments on the work done by Kalia Group to endorse the field of Information Technology in the country.

Tariq Sayeed: If Kalia Group had not invited me today I wouldn’t have known that what role this group has played and is still playing. The kind of work that I have witnessed at their Software House KalSoft (Pvt) Ltd, the facilities that have been offered at Locker Systems at KalVault (Pvt) Ltd. and the social services being provided through this web portal www.KalPoint.com, are certainly remarkable. I am very much impressed and hope that others would follow Kalia Group’s steps. The awareness should be created which this group is creating. I wish them very best of luck.


KalPoint: Which category of KalPoint.com did you like most?

Tariq Sayeed: Amongst those categories that you have shown to me, I think Jobspk.com category has a very pivotal role in the current unemployment situation. You have more than 40 categories, which I will be visiting soon. Inshallah.


KalPoint: Thank you Sir, It was a great honor to have this interview session. C U On Net.

Tariq Sayeed: Thanks and C U On Net 2.

Questions by Netizens/Pakistanis Abroad

Top

Q: Despite of vigorous efforts by the present Government, Pakistans net software exports are less than India. Why? (Raza-Karachi)

Tariq Sayeed: In fact we started very late that is one basic reason and technically it is the question of marketing. Any thing that you are exporting or offering must be marketed through modern techniques. People should know that what is available and where. Pakistan has been very weak in marketing all its products & its services.
The world is working up on important aspects, the global village (Globalization) and the regional cooperation. When you come down to United State you see Mexico, U.S.A and Canada, which has Regional Cooperation in the name of NAFTA to improve their economic relation. When you come down to Europe you see the European union now in existence, but this movement of union started 50 years ago and today the Europe has come up as one unit. The currency is single and all barriers have been removed.
African region is the most under developed region of the world. There are number of Regional Cooperation with in the Africa Region including COMESA which has about 20 countries as well.
If you come down to Middle East you see the Gulf cooperation council. Now if you come to our region there is SAARC, which is a total failure. The other is E.C.O, which is also a flop. Seven countries are in the SAARC including India and Pakistan and ten countries are in the E.C.O including Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. Both of these regional groupings have not succeeded. Why they have not succeeded? Because we are not living as good neighbors. China is our best friend but unfortunately on the trade side our friendship is not being reflected in our trade relations.
The Indian prime minister has taken a U turn to create good relation with Pakistan. India is growing very fast economically. Both India and Pakistan are facing difficulties in their economic development as they have to maintain a large army which is a constraint on their finances. The other part of my opinion is that India has realized that unless it makes up with Pakistan its economic development will also suffer drastically.

As far as trade relations are concerned, in modern economics and as a global village member, it is imperative for every country to have good relations with their neighbors and it has many advantages. It is the survival of the fittest. Who gains more is the question of who does more efforts, who is more competitive, who has more entrepreneurship but in general I think we should trust them and it has good scope of enlarging business relations. Unfortunately all the decisions made In Pakistan are not in consultation with stakeholders. For instance, in 1970s absolutely open trade was established with India without realizing that Pakistan protected it’s industries on tariff walls that were built on our experience with international trading partners minus India. When we opened up with India we didn’t realize that just opening up of every thing in one go would adversely affect our industrial production, marketing, sales in domestic market. So there was lot of hue and cry especially in Punjab. If that experiment had been done in a proper manner, there wouldn’t have had any stoppage of trade between India and Pakistan. I personally think it’s a good move because for instance if you are building Gwadar Port, the provinces of China which are near to Pakistan can send their goods from this port. It is 2500 KM from there and if they send their goods using their ports of coastal area that is 4500 KM. So it will be convenient for China for their province (Xinjiang) neighboring Pakistan to move its goods to gulf through Gwadar Port then to use China Port itself. Neighboring countries will have more advantage of picking up their goods from Pakistan. Similarly Pakistan stands to gain because India has the capacity of producing raw material, which we are not producing but are importing. Now everything we are importing for industries today, we go to cheap sources whether it is raw material, semi-finished or finished product. The only hesitation that the businessmen would have in trade with India is that the businessmen or industrialist cannot plan on long-term basis. Because If they start their procurement of raw materials from one source (India) and all of a sudden it closes down then what will our businessmen do. That is the fear and it should be removed. This fear can be eliminated if we resolve all issues with India including Kashmir. I am very much in favor of trade between India and Pakistan provided permanent cordial relations are maintained.


Q: What is the current situation of import and export in Pakistan? Is it satisfactory or not? (Ali-Quetta)

Tariq Sayeed: As far as the imports are concerned it is very satisfactory because there is no restriction on imports these days. You go to a bank and only have to have a sales tax registration or income tax certificate then you can easily import anything you like. So imports situations are fine but unfortunately if you see the imports statistics you will find that we are not importing raw material, in large quantity and we are not importing capital machinery much. It means we are not expanding industrially; our current industrial capacity is not being utilized to its full extent. We are importing more consumer goods and finished products. So it is becoming more of a importing society especially when the barriers have gone and the custom duty has come down. In my opinion It’s not good for a developing country to open up so much so quickly. India has violated a large number of regulation of WTO and Pakistan has blindly signed every agreement in the world like ILO, WTO and others without realizing that we should take time. For national interest one has to do lots of things. WTO means there can’t be a visible barrier to import anything from any country but what about invisible barriers; you can create lots of invisible barriers to create inconveniency for the imports to come in. It should have been done at least in luxury items. We can live without these imported items like pineapple, chocolates, and ice cream. Local investors should be encouraged to produce these items locally. This way we can save our foreign currency. If you see the exports figure, we have been moving around 8 billion dollars for six years. But during this Government tenure we went to 9.2 billion and this time InshAllah we will succeed in breaking the barriers of 10 billions dollars. But this is not enough. Japan, Germany & USA have more than 500 billion dollars exports. If they increase their export 5 % it will means 25 billion dollars and if we increase our exports 50% (which is not possible) it will mean only 5 billion dollars. So the distance between developed and developing world is very big; it is increasing unless we tremendously increase our growth rate. Pakistan has to see whether it becomes competitive or not. In the world price and quality are very important. We are no longer competitive in prices, our quality is also not very good & we are not reliable suppliers. The role of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has not been very instrumental in previous days but during this Government’s tenure Mr. Tariq Ikram (EPB) has done a good job. I have discussed with President Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf and the former Commerce Minister Mr. Abdul Razzak Dawood at the residence of our Ambassador in Cairo during the D-8 meeting (2001) and have suggested that Exports strategy should be redesigned and Pakistan will have to use the custom bonded warehouses abroad. There is need of warehouses and display centers abroad. Had there been warehouses and displays centers abroad, after 9/11 we would have sufficient goods in foreign countries. For instance if we have a war and there’s a blockage of ships to come at port, these warehouses and display center abroad can not only feed our country requirements during the crises but can feed the international market as well. This is the storage that can keep our wheels going in time of any problem or unexpected incidents.
Secondly, we didn’t even have any Exhibition Center in Pakistan till late. The land of Expo Center in Karachi had been taken over by the Police so you can guess the situation. Pakistan hasn’t been able to organize any International exhibition after more than 50 years of its inception. Even Sri Lanka and Nepal are organizing international exhibitions but we are not. Now with the Expo Centre we look forward to organize an international exhibitions and I am planning one G-77 international Exhibition in Karachi.
Exhibition is a best tool to give exposure to products and here we lack very much. Germany is the only country in the world, which holds over 365 Exhibitions in one year. Hence, we will have to consider all these aspects to take our exports to the world standards even China is now organizing three exhibitions per week.


Q: Whom do you blame for the corruption in Pakistan? Is it system, bureaucracy, poverty, unemployment or what? (Sumera- Sydney, Australia)

Tariq Sayeed: I think there are many factors for the corruption in Pakistan. Corruption is at every level. In my opinion you can’t eradicate corruption only by punishing people or by transferring them to some other department or areas. From where will you bring honest people? You can’t import honest people. The only remedy that remains is the change in system. For instance today if DIG sees constant increase in encroachments, he should dismiss the SHO, just not transfer him. Transfer is not the solution. Unless you adopt a policy of dismissal them, the SHO’s will be very careful and he will not take bribe and bring more encroachers on footpaths. We have to change the systems in the country. I have traveled about 76 countries of the world so far. Businessmen in some other countries particularly in developed countries do not know who is the income tax officer, where is his office, where is the custom house, who is the collector. You don’t have to know. Every thing in the world is moving on do*****ents. So In this country we must change the system. For example, in Pakistan when the exporter gets his proceeds, he pays the income tax at the bank stage. They cut a certain tax and file a return. Now the Income Tax Office (ITO) can’t take bribe from exporters because he is not going to make an assessment order that was the sword hanging on the assesse in the country in the past. When you file the return, appear in front of income tax officer he will say that you have declared 2 lacs, I am going to make 20 lacs. From one stroke of pen he will reject your accounts book, sales and expenses. The other way is to pay him the bribe.
The current Finance Minister, Shoukat Aziz has taken a new initiative and has announced that all income tax return to be filed this year would be treated as the assessment order. Income Tax Officer (ITO) won’t have any interference. Pakistan is the first developing country in the world to have adopted this policy which is in practice in all developed countries. The credit goes to our Finance Minister.
As you see the element of corruption, you have to change the system by making it transparent, convenient and there should be nothing remaining in the hands of officials. There’s another interesting element that some people say that the corruption start from low level; I say that the corruption starts from upper level. If the head of states Ministers are corrupt then all the respective institutions and people working in those institutions will also become corrupt.
We must head for the situation where Government ensures that every honest man can live an honest life within his salary scale. Let the Government provide free education, free health facilities and free transport. If I am a laborer having 3000 salary and Government provides me these facilities free, I can live a peaceful life
Pakistan is one of the most fortunate land on earth. It’s a land of opportunities. We have the best people, best entrepreneurs etc. but the question is will we be able to work, whether this atmosphere will favor us or not. Whether we will have honest and dedicated leadership on continuous basis.