The Council’s Chairman, Haji Nazir Ahmed, took office on July 1, 2003 for a two year term. In mid-July a decision was taken to implement PIFFC’s work via subcommittees. By mid-August the Council’s Senior Director and Chief Coordinator, Mr. Babar Badat, issued a programme detailing the subcommittees, their objectives and proposed actions. The programmes details centred on structuring and enhancing trade facilitations for Pakistan’s exports and import trade. The programme, with proposed objectives (OBJ) and actions (ACT), is as follows:

Trade Reconciliation Subcommittee
1. (OBJ) Implementation of the Standard Trading Conditions, Code of Conduct and Minimum Qualifications. All the documents have been put together with the consultation and deliberations of several members and UNCTAD consultants. Copies were later circulated to the entire membership. There were no specific objections; in fact, positive comments were received.

(ACT) The Subcommittee to call a meeting of the UNCTAD international consultants, the legal advisors, and any members who may wish to discuss any aspect of the documents.

2. (OBJ) The Subcommittee should act as an arbitrator for any disputes amongst members. However it should be with the consent of the parties involved on events taking place only after the date of formation of the Subcommittee.

(ACT) Make this announcement to the members so that every member has to option to refer to it.

3.(OBJ) The Subcommittee can act as a mediator for any complaints from the trade at large against any member and tackle it in accordance with the implementation of the Code of Conduct or recommend alternate course for resolution of the complaint.

(ACT) Let this be known to the trade.

4.(OBJ) The Subcommittee can interact with any other trade body or organization, national or international, where the general interest of our Council and the members is concerned.

(ACT) Prepare a programme on these lines.

Dry Ports Subcommittee
(OBJ) At least one member represents each dry port on the Subcommittee to protect the interest of member operating via the dry ports.

(ACT) As a first step the Subcommittee members bring about a process of interaction amongst themselves to discuss the day to day problems emanating at their respective dry ports and develop a common strategy on the problems which they feel can be addressed from the PIFFC forum.

Afghan Transit Trade Subcommittee
(OBJ) It is no secret that the procedure applicable for the Afghan Transit Trade is too cumbersome and renders us inefficient as compared to the Iranians, who are reported to have slashed their documentation process as well as their charges for the Afghan transit cargoes. We have to interact with the Government and explain to them the wisdom of putting in place new efficient and competitive conditions for the Afghan Transit Trade so that our members can use their International partners and their Global networks to sell Pakistan as the most ideal transit point for the Afghan traffic.

(ACT) We have already put up a representation via our Subcommittee member Mr. Hashim to the CBR mentioning our reservations and putting across some of our recommendations on the procedure we would like to have in place. Secondly we have already put our point across by putting one of the Subcommittee member, Mr. Ansari on the national media where he appeared on behalf of PIFFC and discussed the Afghan Transit Trade.

1. Meet with Customs and CBR to see how we can simplify the procedures. Simultaneously approach the Commerce Ministry.
2. Meet with KPT to see how we can reduce the costs or come up with a reduced tariff. This action will be followed up with the Communication Ministry, Transport Wing.
3. Put up a separate section on the PIFFC website for Afghan Transit Trade introducing the services and also giving some details on the required paper work. The info should be easily available globally on the net to any prospective international shipper.
4. Get details of the companies and countries involved in the Afghan Reconstruction programme. Approach their Consulates’ Commercial Consuls to introduce Pakistan as a likely transit point for their Afghan Traffic.

Legal Issues Subcommittee
1. (OBJ) The Council was made at a time when there were few companies engaged in our trade. The constitution was also made accordingly. In recent years there has been a mass of change in the trade and today our members need a new structure and a more relevant constitution. We must graduate into becoming a trade association and this we have to work via the FPCCI and the Commerce Ministry.

(ACT) There is a prescribed procedure for this and we have put up our requirements to a Legal Consultant. We have already held preliminary discussions with FPCCI and we believe we can obtain the required NOC from them.

2. (OBJ) It is common practice for our members to be left with unpaid freight bills. We need to address this by developing a mechanism to protect our members from credit abuse.

(ACT) Our colleagues in the air industry ACAAP seems to have a good system to address this problem. We should develop a similar system by seeking their assistance perhaps via our common members.

3. (OBJ) Work towards introducing the FIATA Bill of Lading format for our members and arranging discounted insurance coverage for the eligible members.

(ACT) We need to negotiate with Adamjee Insurance and EFU to work out group insurance premium for our members. Once the Standard Trading Conditions are in place it will become possible for the insurance companies to consider such a proposal.

Training & Education Subcommittee
(OBJ) Our members need to keep themselves abreast of the latest changes in the disciplines of International Freight Forwarding and an opportunity needs to be created for our members to introduce basic training within their organizations on “International Freight Forwarding Practice.” We also need to put in place a long term programme to enhance the professional & educational level of our trade.

(ACT) 1. UNCTAD has been requested to hold a seminar on the “Latest Trends in International Freight Forwarding & Logistics Management.” UNCTAD has expressed their willingness to engage in arranging this seminar. They will call in their International Consultants for this. We will also engage FIATA in this.

2. A basic International Freight Forwarding course has been designed by the Nautical Institute. We should promote regular offerings of this course for our members’ staff to go into joint certification for this. Additionally we should ask Taffit to run such a course and also make certification arrangements with them. Besides Karachi these courses should also be conducted in Lahore and Sialkot. After a period of a year we could recommend to our members that a certificate of this course would be a pre-requisite to getting a job in any member company.

3. A dialogue should be opened with the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport to introduce a curriculum specific to international freight forwarding. This would be advance courses and would provide the candidate with International Certification.

4. Karachi University is conducting a Master degree in Transport Management. Initial contact has been established with them. It should be recommended that their curriculum includes courses relevant to International Freight Forwarding. Currently they are offering for graduates a one year diploma course with another year's study leading to a Masters degree. We should consider organizing two scholarships every year. This way in ten years time we could have 20 professionals with Master degrees who will contribute to our industry.

Consolidation Subcommittee
(OBJ) In continuation of the work done by some of our members, to structure the procedures and the working of the export consolidation trade in order to ensure a reasonably profitable engagement for our members.

(ACT) 1. Renegotiate agreement with the terminals.

2. Prioritize the trades to ensure a reasonable earning for each type of operator i.e. co-loader, shipper etc.

3. Regionalize the trades and work towards stable rates

4. Pursue a programme to make Karachi a LCL transshipment port. This will entail engagement with the
Customs, CBR, Ports etc.

Deconsolidation Subcommittee
(OBJ) The market is making numerous complaints about excessive overcharging by deconsolidators on account of D/O fees. At the same time some carriers are placing unjustified changes for handling inbound consol boxes.

(ACT) 1. Standardize our changes with the carriers for the different delivery terms.

2. Make our own recommended tariff of charges and announce
it to the trade.

3. Address the growing incidence of rebates.

4. Work with Consolidation Subcommittee to make Karachi an LCL transshipment port.

Info Technology & Publication Subcommittee
(OBJ) 1. Develop a website detailing our entire membership. This website should also pronounce sectors which require International Marketing.

2. Investigate the possibility of using technology in pooling surplus freights or synchronizing the building of consol boxes for uncommon destinations and co-loadings (work with Consolidation Subcommittee).

3. Investigate developing common systems with carriers resulting in instant availability of cargo information from the sheds and electronic issuance of delivery orders etc. (work with Deconsolidation Subcommittee).

4. Plan to create an integrated system to support the functions covering all the Subcommittees.

(ACT) Immediately contract the services a first class IT Company and engage them in the above objectives.

(OBJ) Publish a magazine (e.g. monthly) to promote news and information on member companies, on the International Freight Forwarding business, on carriers, and on promoting our common perspectives. The magazine will be self-generating fuelled by members’ advertisements. The objectives will not be to make money on it but only to meet its publishing and printing costs. This will help keep the costs low.

(ACT) Plan, design and execute. Fix a date for the launch.

Airfreight Subcommittee
(OBJ) Identify the number of our members engaged in airfreight and ascertain their level of activity. Plan a programme in consultation with ACAAP.

(ACT) Send out a questionnaire to collect the required information of members, and put it up for the Committee to plan.

As things stand today it seems a member of objectives have been met in the past three months, some in cooperation with NTTFC & UNCTAD. PIFFC has requested further support from the Trade and Transport Facilitation Project. They expect that they will be able to achieve most of these targets by July 2004.

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