The importance of trade exhibitions

Exhibitions and trade shows are the hallmark of any country’s industrial growth and business development. They are part of a business strategy to promote businesses, and have become a global industry.

The importance of this industry can be gauged from the fact that global visitors and exhibitors spend almost $137 billion on such exhibitions and trade shows every year. Rough estimates on the worldwide exhibitions are that about 4.5 million companies all over the world participate in around 32,000 exhibitions, attracting almost 303 million visitors.

These exhibitions primarily promote trade businesses. A country’s products and brands are offered for sale, and the exhibitions also attract investment by promoting trade and industry. A country like Pakistan needs more of these exhibitions to showcase its specialities, industrial outputs and goods/items. It was a good initiative by the Musharraf government to build Expo centres in Karachi and Lahore.

The China-Pakistan Friendship Centre in Islamabad is another exhibition centre, catering to trade and business promotion. There is also a plan to build more such centres in Faisalabad, Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot to promote trade and businesses. The Faisalabad Expo centre is planned to be the biggest state-of-the-art facility to accommodate products and outputs produced out of new Special Economic Zone (SEZ) established under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). But such centres, instead of being only in Punjab, need to be established in all major cities of Pakistan.

In developed countries, exhibitions are a permanent feature of their business promotions worldwide. It was only due to the Covid-19 pandemic that business stands disturbed even in the industrially developed nations. In Pakistan, exhibitions and trade shows are gaining currency to promote business and exports attracting investment. The biggest exhibition in Pakistan is the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) that has become a permanent feature.

But we need more such exhibitions in all other fields of excellence to showcase our products. There are many good exhibitions generating business activity but they are only limited to two cities, Karachi and Lahore. Pakistan needs more; only 40 or 50 such events are insufficient to promote business and trade. A country of 250 million people, ranking fifth in the world needs at least 400-500 such exhibitions every year to support and uplift economic activities. The patronage of the government is absolutely necessary, as the private sector is more than willing to promote such activity through public-private partnership.

The importance of exhibitions can be evaluated from the fact that the World Expo is a global activity now, held in Dubai. The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) is an intergovernmental organisation created to supervise international exhibitions known as World Expos (currently in Dubai, UAE). The BIE was established by the Convention on International Exhibitions signed in Paris in 1928. BIE membership currently stands at 170 countries including all important countries of the world including China, Russia, US and the EU countries. The BIE organises World Expos every five years.

Dubai Expo 2020 – originally scheduled in the year 2020 – was postponed due to the pandemic till 2021, and is also part of the activities under the auspices of BIE. Four cities of the world – Izmir (Turkey), Yekaterinburg (Russia), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Dubai (UAE) – participated in a bid back in 2013 to host the World Expo 2020. Ultimately, Dubai won the bid to go for the World Expo currently underway till March 31, 2022.

If we look at the global figures of exhibitions, we can easily see that about 13,000 such events are held in US, 12000 in Europe and about 2500 in China; South Asia, Africa and the Middle East have very few of such activities, reflecting the rather sorry state of affairs in developing and least developed countries. The bigger point is that all developed nations are providing an investment and business friendly atmosphere to their industrialists and investors as compared to developing countries, which need more businesses to support their economic development.

This needs a whole review of policy framework by countries like Pakistan so as to bolster trade-enhancing exports to help support the investment climate in the country on a long-term basis. But unfortunately there seems to be a void in a well-considered serious thought-out process at the government level. It has been left to the whims of an inert bureaucracy that is unable to deliver. There is an immediate need to review it by all none other than the prime minister of Pakistan and his cabinet.

The most crucial question is how to improve the present situation, as the response from the present setup and the bureaucracy is quite lacklustre and discouraging. In my considered opinion, there is an immediate need to overhaul the bureaucracy through reforms and reformation to achieve the desired results. Public-private partnership should be made part of the policy and this policy should be implemented in letter and spirit. The private sector is quite dynamic and impressive, capable of yielding the best of results if provided patronage by line ministries, divisions and departments.

All the ministries, divisions and departments dealing with commerce, trade, industries, planning and financing should be declared focal offices to provide patronage to exhibitors and trade fair participants. There should be a separate body to oversee all matters related to exhibitions and trade shows, since the TDAP is not providing real impetus to business. The private sector, especially, is not really given the status it deserves to promote businesses.

Further, there should be allocation of a separate budget to be administered by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives along with the Ministry of Commerce to provide patronage to new initiatives to promote businesses through exhibitions and trade shows. The development schemes in this regard should be forwarded by the line ministries and departments to the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives for approval.

The Ministry of Planning should be tasked this assignment as a special initiative to bring about an improvement in the exhibition industry of Pakistan. There should be a separate cell for this purpose, equipped with all modern gadgets and further reinforced with human resources hired from the private sector to avoid the traditional lazy bureaucracy. Commercial attaches/councillors should be monitored by the cell based in the ministry. The corporate outlook of this cell would make this possible.

I would also like to suggest to the government to go all-out for exhibitions and trade shows with the support and cooperation of chambers of commerce and industry in Pakistan. The involvement of the private sector in organising such exhibitions is absolutely necessary. As Pakistan is already in the second phase of CPEC, establishing and functionalising SEZs, it is all the more important to have more expo centres and more exhibitions as well as trade shows. We can add at least one percent to our GDP growth through this initiative. This is absolutely necessary to enhance exports and attract investment for the country.

The writer is an economist.