Benefits of collaboration and joint venture opportunities between Pakistan and turkey By Mr. Azim Ashraf, President Pakistan HVACR Society

Azim Ashraf is a Founding Member of Pakistan HVACR Society & Member of ASHRAE, USA. On account of his dedicated, sincere & marvelous services for the HVAC&R profession over a period of 5 decades, he was conferred a “Life Time Achievement Award” by the Pakistan HVACR Society in 2009. Early this year, he offered a presentation on “Benefits of collaboration and joint venture opportunities between Pakistan and turkey HVACR industries” during his visit to ISK-Sodex Exhibition at Istanbul, Turkey. This presentation was highly appreciated by professionals from both the countries. For the readers, we are hereby reproducing main theme of his presentation.

Pakistan HVACR society has been working untiringly for uplifting the HVACR sector in Pakistan. Since their inception in 1995, HVACR society is serving the country. They have their offices all over Pakistan.

Keeping up with the rapid advances in the IT sector HVACR society has redesigned their Website where information about the society is consistently updated. As of December 2017 there were more than 3000 members of the society.

HVACR society organizes a very diverse range of events including Technical seminars, business meetings, annual meetings and elections. The society has been opening offices all over Pakistan the most recent being the Karachi chapter office. The Society also sends its delegations abroad to increase interaction with similar Societies in other countries.

Besides Conferences, Expos and Business Meetings, Society also provides opportunities for Social Gatherings including sports galas, dinners and other social evenings.

HVACR society believes that there is enormous potential in Pakistan for the HVACR industry and it needs to be channelized for proper utilization. This can be achieved by coordinating joint ventures with other organizations and countries. Joint ventures provide endless benefits to the firm.

Way forward for Collaborations & Joint Ventures

1. Coming to the subject, I may inform you that Pakistan is one of the most beautiful countries of the world, having deferent types of land Escaping from fertile plains to deserts and to mountains. It has five seasons, Summer (April ~ June), Monsoon (July to September) Winter (November ~ February), Autumn & Spring (March ~ April). The climate of Pakistan is mostly hot, dry deserts (45 ~ 50°C DB), temperate in North West and arctic in North (- 20°C)
2. Pakistan is a country of 200 Million people (2.5 times more than Turkey) whereas the area of both countries is approx equal. Turkey has 783,502 KM² & Pakistan has 796,095 KM²
3. Pakistan GDP growth is 5.2%. Next year target is 6%. Pakistan economy is now worth more than US$ 300 Billion. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project of multibillion US$ is going to transform the entire region into a hub of economic activities. And there is a great attraction for the businessmen of the world, to avail the advantages of the favorable investment & business environment in Pakistan
4. The growing Turkish involvement in socio economic development of Pakistan is a clear manifestation of the desire of the leadership on both sides to convert & to transform this political & cultural relationship into a strong and long tasting economic partnership. Turkish & Pakistan companies can explore opportunities for joint ventures, collaborations & trade in various sectors including textiles, construction, services, energy & tourism etc and above all in Heating, Ventilation, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration fields which has a great potential in Pakistan. One of the Turkish companies has acquired 100% shares of a Pakistani company manufacturing domestic appliances like fridges, freezers, split A/Cs, washing machines, microwaves etc. Some Turkish companies are working with Govt of Pakistan in collaboration on some projects. In short, there is a good penetration of Turkish companies in Pakistan on account of very attractive investment environments
5. It will be of an interest to know that Turkey & Pakistan have negotiated a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to boost bilateral trade upto 5-10 Billion US Dollars. This agreement was signed in August 2017. It is a good opportunity to avail this facility for the vendors and manufacturers of Turkish HVACR equipment.
6. I am leading a delegation of 40 persons who remained engaged for 2 days for B2B meetings with their counterparts for establishing joint ventures and business collaboration in various sectors of HVACR fields. I am sure some positive results may spring out, because, where there is a will, there is a way

Now, I shall brief you about the Scope and Potential of HVACR in Pakistan and the benefits of JV & collaboration with each other.

1. Access to new market resources & opportunities and Sharing of skills & know-how
2. Getting international experience, trust & confidence which can facilitate Increasing the revenue, profit and reducing / sharing risks
3. Development of R & D to adopt new technologies to improving efficiency, productivity & quality
4. Diversified & globalization process of spreading of investments and to reduce risks
5. To have culture compatibility, increase in socio economic relations between the partners & the countries
6. And above all, JV balances the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)position of an individual firm