Roadmap to Implementation of Change

Spearheading the national drive for exports

The Economic Reform Agenda of the Government expects exports to make a greater contribution to the GDP by achieving a quantum leap. In the words of our Prime Minister, “Exports is our lifeline”. Thus TDA was reinvented based on principles and emerged as the successor organization to build upon EPB achievements. For successful export promotion it is vital that the product supply chain is strengthened specially to add value. As an autonomous body and a state-of-the-art, empowered organization, the TDA will espouse and practice a holistic approach to the planning and development of exports with major thrust behind aggressive marketing of Pakistan and its products.

Through focus, synergy and collective wisdom and enhanced capability and capacity of companies supplying goods and services, the Authority will spearhead the national drive for exports under the guidelines of the TDA Board significantly influenced by 10 private sector persons. It will help by leveraging the true potential of different sectors and add value to their exports. The Authority will foster a supportive and proactive export culture while encouraging and coordinating with BOI ‘export oriented’ foreign investment and joint ventures. TDA will also undertake export marketing and export promotion within the enlarged mandate and remit. The TDA will create direct linkages with stakeholders, local and abroad, to synergize resources towards the pursuit of a quantum leap in exports. The Authority will advise the government on regulations and trade development initiatives to achieve this growth. The Authority aspires for the export contribution to be enhanced from 13% to 15% of GDP in the short term.

TDA is a proactive facilitator. It has a strong focus on stakeholder valued services and will have an effective and structured dialogue with all stakeholders through Sectoral Export Committees, Export Facilitation Committees, WTO cell etc. The advice and output from these interactions will be instrumental in formulating effective trade policy initiatives and monitoring services of TDA backed by independent customer satisfaction surveys. 

TDA values the knowledge and experience of its existing government and non-government officers and will take onboard all. However, this will be reinforced by an intensive training programme relevant to TDA’s new working procedures and multi skill competencies that it requires. A detailed Human Resource Audit will form the basis of a customized training programme implemented through world class H.R consultants.

Information communication technology is planned to fully automate TDA’s functioning and the state-of-art delivery of its services and marketing effort. The public servants and contractual employees now with TDA will be given specific training to develop their skills and strengthen their performance. They will be empowered to perform to the best of their abilities, rising to the challenge of diversifying our target markets and products in order to achieve the planned quantum leap. To complement the existing skill base additional human resources will also be sourced.

Market access is vital to export growth. Whilst this will be achieved by Ministry of Commerce, TDA will have a strong advisory role for both the government and the private sector, followed by ensuring maximization of exports through such access with aggressive marketing.

• Such as the one being undertaken for the transformation of EPB to TDAP is a formidable task. It requires a dedicated resource to implement and needs to be implemented fast in the organization and its people.

• Working in synergy, the hired consultants will assist the Change Management Team in creating and developing the new organization. They will revisit the Vision, Mission, Strategy, Goals, Organogram, Key Processes, Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators etc. for the TDAP. Assignment will also include complete documentation of processes related to policy, guidelines, manuals, training support, audio visual materials for embedding processes, monitoring and fine tuning, etc.

• The Consultants will assist the Change Management Team to plan out the new organization along with organizational structure, training staff, induction of new employees, etc. during the period of 6-8 months from the period of induction.

• Thereafter, the implementation process will start. Thus, formation of TDA will take place over a period of 18 to 24 months. The resulting, ISO certified organization will be fully functional by the end of 2008.