KARACHI: Subsequent to the 10th AGM of Swiss Business Council (SBC) held in Karachi, the Board of Directors and Office Bearers of SBC for the term 2018-19 are notified as follows:
Farhat Ali (Chairman, Polygal NV Pakistan) elected as President of SBC, Mujtaba Rahim (MD, Archroma Pakistan) elected as Vice President and Asif Ikram (MD, SICPA Inks Pakistan) as Chairman of Membership Committee, K.M. Iqbal, (Director, Al Ameen Trading) as Secretary General & Farrukh Rehan (MD, Roche Pakistan) as Treasurer of SBC.
The other board members are Naveed N. Chaudhary (MD, Sika Pakistan), Shahab Rizvi (MD, Novartis Pakistan), Joao Martins (MD, Phillip Morris) and Imtiaz Hussain (Director, Imtiaz Enterprises).
Switzerland is among the first 5 largest Foreign Direct Investors in Pakistan and many Swiss Companies are market leaders in Pakistan, in fields such as, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Energy, Food and Water, Precision and Specialty industry and textile machinery.
SBC works in close partnership with Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), Swiss-Asian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) & Asia Society Switzerland Foundation (ASSF) – all headquartered in Zurich. S-GE works around the globe to support Swiss SMEs & facilitates their link-up with global partners, SACC conducts global business networking & links-up Swiss and Asian markets stretching from Mongolia to Vietnam and also networking within Asian markets and ASSF brings together the business, social and cultural ties between Switzerland and Asia.
SBC, in partnership with SACC in Zurich, plays a significant role in projecting the positive perception of Pakistan to the world by participating in global forums, notably, World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos where global political & business leaders and opinion makers meet every year. SBC’s interaction with global business leaders and the joint efforts of SBC & S-GE has motivated Swiss SMEs to partner with SMEs in Pakistan through technology-transfer, FDI and exports.
SBC’s target for 2018-19 is to enhance the global perception of Pakistan, whereas, the core task is to extensively work on partnering Swiss and Pakistani SMEs to enhance FDI and exports of goods & services. Pakistan, with depleting exports and FDI is in dire need of every bit of it.