EU ambassador to Pakistan, Jean-François Cautain, has asked the Pakistani business community to explore opportunities in other sectors besides textile and leather to derive maximum advantage of the GSP Plus scheme. Cautain’s comments came at a symposium in connection with Pakistan Mega Leather Show 2016 (PMLS) at Lahore. “The leather sector is an important sector in Pakistan, due to the sheer size of its economic footprint, employment, and potential for value creation. Despite being an export earner, the leather sector has a small share in the global trade of value added goods and products. In the wake of the current incentives given by the EU, which includes the GSP Plus status for Pakistan, the value added leather sector needs to seize the opportunity and further develop the sector to become an even greater export earner for Pakistan,” the ambassador later told reporters. Events such as the Pakistan Mega Leather Show help in improving confidence of international investors in leather sector, Cautain said. The PMLS-2016 provided a unique platform for the Pakistani leather industry, including tanners, footwear manufacturers, leather garments and gloves manufacturers, chemical companies, and other vendors supplying equipment, machinery and components to the leather industry to display their products, and provide a single platform for the Pakistani leather industry.
