Turns out, prophet tahmed's strategy of burying his head in his ass isn't very effective

turns out, what pakis think of pakiland wrt india in the paki echo chamber doesn't matter...

delusional pakis can conjure up an alternate reality for pakiland all they want...the real world sees pakiland for what it really is...

Negative perception of country abroad
Entrepreneurs striving to find new buyers

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
By Mansoor Ahmad

LAHORE: Pakistan’s economy is paying a heavy price for the negative perception of the country abroad, losing many opportunities to make a mark in global markets and is currently dependent on old established contacts which too demand heavy discounts.

The News has found that entrepreneurs from Pakistan have redoubled their efforts to fetch new orders for textile, engineering and pharmaceutical products as well as services where they enjoy both quality and price advantage. In fact, some of the entrepreneurs travelling abroad in search of new markets now first present their product samples to attract the interest of buyers before disclosing their identity because if the identity is disclosed first a large number of buyers will even refuse to talk.

“Company perception cannot be better than country perception,” said Dr Yasir Mehmood, former chairman of Lahore Stock Exchange.

“It is a pity that many remarkable companies in the country are suffering because of the bad perception of Pakistan abroad. There is nothing wrong with businesses, many of which have the ability to compete the best in the world. However, the bad image, which is far from reality, is hurting their chances,” he said.

“There is more instability and terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan than in Pakistan,” said Almas Hyder, an engineering entrepreneur and exporter who have just returned from a visit to the US.

He said foreign buyers were more responsive to exporters from these countries despite their unreliability to execute orders on time. “Yet hand knotted carpets from Afghanistan have penetrated the global markets at the expense of Pakistan,” he said, adding carpet exporters from Pakistan had always honored their commitments and produced better quality at competitive rates.

In the engineering sector, he said, Pakistan was the most competitive producer of superior quality sugar mills, but its penetration into the global markets was limited as developed economies were particularly reluctant to place orders in a country perceived as a symbol of terrorism.

“This is far from truth. Life is as normal in Pakistan as anywhere else. Despite terrorist attacks, factories are operating and the services sector is providing excellent services,” he said.

“It is the failure of our Foreign Office and diplomats,” he said, adding even at the peak of instability in the Indian-held Kashmir and other states like Assam and Nagaland the Indian diplomats managed to portray a soft image of their country abroad.

He said there was a need to highlight the fact that people of Pakistan hated terrorists and law enforcement agencies had developed the expertise to tackle them effectively.

MI Khurram, a knitwear and yarn exporter, said decades-old buyers of Pakistani textile products, who had curtailed their purchases after 9/11, were coming back to the Pakistani market at a time when terrorist activities had increased. He said they moved away from Pakistan fearing disruption in supplies.

However, they saw that whatever orders they placed were executed timely and quality and prices were better than competing suppliers. He said new buyers, however, were still reluctant to give textile orders to Pakistan due to its negative perception. “This is impeding the actual export potential of textiles.”

Syed Nabeel Hashmi, former chairman Pakistan Association of Auto Parts and Accessories Manufacturers, said the local auto parts’ industry was fully geared up to make substantial inroads into the European and US markets. The only hurdle in that regard was negative opinion of foreign buyers about Pakistan. He said the Afghan-Pakistan policy of the US administration was further damaging the image of Pakistan. “Every terrorist activity in Afghanistan or killing of NATO soldiers there is blamed on Pakistan.” He said improving the image was as important as the fight against terror, adding Pakistan should launch a full diplomatic offensive to make the outside world see the country in a realistic perspective.