Syed Mussarat Khalil
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — This our family business. We started this in 1956 said M. Furqan Akhtar partner FHA Industries Sialkot, Pakistan an exhibitor at Pakistan Pavilion in Saudi International Sports and Fitness (SISF) and Saudi Health and Beauty (SHB) exhibition organized by Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions at Jeddah Center for Forums and Events.
Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Akhtar said we are participating for the first time in Saudi Arabia. Normally we participate in Europe and Middle East, which is area which has demand for our products. We have no distributors or agent in Saudi Arabia and are on the lookout for one, but we have in Kuwait and Qatar, he added.
Pakistan Pavilion in the Exhibition was jointly inaugurated by Prince Abdulaziz Bin Faisal Bin Abdulmajeed and Consul General of Pakistan Shehryar Akbar Khan.
On this occasion Shehryar said that Pakistan offers state of the art technology in manufacturing of surgical instruments and sports goods and its products such as footballs are very popular in international markets especially Europe and North America.
“Given the high level of expenditure of Saudi Arabia on health sector and growing consciousness of Saudi youth towards fitness and exports activities huge potential exists for exports from Pakistan. The participating companies/exhibitors are among the top exporters from Pakistan dealing in surgical instruments and sports goods such as football and sports gloves,” he said.
Commercial Counselor, Abdul Wahab Soomro said in a press statement Pakistan’s exports to world for year 2014-15 for surgical instruments and sports goods respectively stood at $400 and $585 million whereas its exports to Saudi Arabia for the same period remained just $2 and $3.5 million respectively for the said categories of products.
He said Saudis spend approximately $17 billion annually on personal care and beauty with 11% growth rate. Similarly, Saudi Sport & Fitness equipment and infrastructure needs are currently valued at $20 billion with Private Fitness club industry growing at 16% per year and Sport sector growing over 40% per year in public and private investment.
The market therefore offers huge growth opportunities for Pakistani exports, Soomro added.
To increase the visitor traffic to Pakistan Pavilion, Commercial Section Pakistan Consulate Jeddah had already disseminated information to various Chambers of Commerce and relevant Business community regarding participation of Pakistani companies.
B2B meetings for the visiting exhibitors have also been scheduled to afford them an opportunity for optimum networking with local buyers and possibly striking deals and booking orders.
