October 10, 2019: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) here on Thursday urged the government for focusing on better development of handicraft industry to earn billions of dollars foreign exchange through increased exports of handicraft products.
Pakistani handicrafts have enormous export potential with the growing demand in the foreign countries, said ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed while talking to a delegation of Handicrafts Association of Pakistan (HAP) led by its President Fahad Barlas that visited ICCI.
The President ICCI said that Pakistan has good potential to promote handicrafts exports to many countries including USA, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia. He urged the government for taking measures for better development of this industry, adding that promoting the handicraft industry would create plenty of jobs for women and others.
He said that billions of dollars could be brought to Pakistan annually through the export of handicrafts provided the ultra-modern designs were introduced to capture global markets. He assured the delegation that ICCI would fully cooperate with HAP in resolving the key issues of handcrafts industry Speaking at the occasion, Fahad Barlas, President, Pakistan Handicrafts Association said that many handicrafts products were developed in far flung areas and added that handicraft sector of Pakistan has the potential to fetch huge foreign exchange provided it was promoted through logistic support by the government.
He said that trade fairs and exhibitions played important role in promoting handicrafts, but lack of resources were the major hurdles in organizing such events.
Fahad Barlas also urged the government for providing support to private sector in organizing fairs and exhibitions for better growth of this sector. He said government should provide platforms that could enable individual artisans to sell their products on the web in a growing market niche.
Barlas said if private sector was provided modern scientific trainings and techniques in line with new trends and market driven demands, Pakistan has the potential to produce the world best quality handicrafts to compete effectively in the international market.
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