@DESERT FIGHTER edit your post to fix your language or it will be deleted.
Let me further embarrass these troll... by posting an article from 2002... our exports in 2001;
Opportunities & challenges: Arms exports
Published
Sep 16, 2002 12:00am
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The second International Defence Exhibition and seminar(IDEAS 2002), which opens today (Sept 16) at the Expo Centre holds lot of promises for Pakistan’s defence production industry.
Organized by the Defence Export Promotion Organization (DEPO), with the support from the armed forces and the ministry of defence, the exhibition is said to be attracting a large number of delegates from a number of countries. A sizable number of foreign manufactures of arms are also exhibiting their products.
The first venture of this kind, IDEAS 2000, held at the same venue in November 2000, titled as “Arms for Peace” was termed as a big success by its organizers. It was attended by high level military delegations from more than 40 countries and attracted more than 12000 domestic and international visitors. The president himself visited the show and was all praise.
The present event is being organized with the same title, with invitation extended to delegations of more than 70 countries. The organizers expect some 15000 guests including delegates from foreign countries, diplomats, representatives of trade organizations which the President will inaugurate .
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In the past few years, Pakistan has really stepped up its efforts to find a niche in the markets for the weapons it produces. The country has also displayed its capability and degree of sophistication achieved in the production of large variety of defence products.
The military regime set up DEPO in January 2001 giving it the task of spearheading the drive for our weapon exports. Thirteen Pakistani organizations, 10 from public sector and three from private sector, participated in the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX, 2001) at Abu Dhabi under the DEPO’S umbrella.
These efforts are bearing fruit. Our exports earnings from weapons and defence equipment have made a quantum jump, if the DG DEPO, Maj Gen Syed Ali Hamid,is to be believed, of almost a 100 per cent, from $40 million to $85-90 million. Seeing this success in the past couple of years, official circles at DEPO and ministry of defence are pinning a lot of hopes on IDEAS 2002.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi earlier in August, the DG DEPO said that export target for defence products in the next year is $ 147 million.
Other officials are expecting to capture at least 1 per cent share in the global arms market of $ 25billion, making it $ 250 million in the next five years, until 2007. Besides, there has been talk of turning around the national economy through arms sales in a course of two to three years.
No doubt there exists a vast sea of opportunities for us in this arena. The Gulf states can prove to be the largest market for our products. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose current defence expenditure is $3.7 billion, is alone expected to invest approximately $10 billions in the next five years. Saudi Arabia, with defence expenditure of $17 billion is the largest buyer of arms in the region and that too all from the western sources. Kuwait and Oman have multi billion dollars defence budgets and plan to acquire a variety of defence hardware from different sources. Countries like Syria, willing to change their out-dated Soviet arms are also looking for new suppliers.
In the South East Asia, Malaysia keeps on purchasing arms to respond to Singapore’s military buildup. Indonesia and Vietnam buy arms for their respective needs. And Sub-Saharan Africa, the venue of some of the world’s most deadly conflicts provides a lucrative market for the producers of arms. The situation looks very promising in this given context. But at the same time it brings forth with it some challenges for us as well, maintain some experts in the field.
We must not forget that we are competing with the giants. The United States is leading, for decades the global arms sales. In calendar year 2001, the US arm manufacturers made new agreements worth $12.1 billion and delivered $9.7 billion worth of arms, capturing 45 per cent of the market. With $5.8 billion in new contracts and deliveries worth 3.6 billion, Russia stands at the second position. New contracts signed by other European countries (UK, France, Germany and Italy) totalled $4.5 billion and deliveries were $5.1 billion.
These are technologically highly advanced countries and have mastered the art of manufacturing major weapon systems. They have no problem in arranging the required finances and can ensure delivery in time. Do we fulfil these requirements? We have to realistically analyze our capacity while making grandiose plans of defence productions and sales.
The global arms market is highly politicized. Political and strategic alignments play an important role when the buyers make decisions to procure arms. Quality and price competitiveness often take the back seat. We must not forget that the Arab states are under strong political, strategic and even financial pressure from the west, US in particular. This factor will be decisive for our plans to sell huge quantities of defence products to them.
The UAE, which traditionally purchases aircraft from France, is now making contracts with the US firms to fulfil the needs of its air force. Experts see the extended US presence in the Gulf behind this decision. And not to mention the less subtle but highly institutionalized persuasive methods like kickbacks, bribes and commissions. Of course, our own men in uniform are very much familiar with this phenomenon, after Admiral Mansur’s much publicized case. We have to make a realistic assessment that where do we exactly stand in this scenario and what we can expect in the days to come. Islamabad will have to look into these realities carefully and devise a comprehensive strategy if it wants its share in the world defence sales increased.
However, despite all these factors, the DEPO’s expectations can not be termed as totally illegitimate. Though we may not achieve our desired objective of higher arm sales in just one go, we can at least make the world believe, through exhibitions like IDEAS, that they now have a choice between expensive and economical but effective weapons for their defence. No doubt, it is a good example that public sector organizations like DEPO are working hard for the task assigned to them. Such efforts should be serialized to obtain the desired results.
And by 2008... we crossed 300 million in weapons exports!
Official claims big rise in arms exports
Published Jul 18, 2008 12:00am
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ISLAMABAD, July 17: Pakistan’s defence exports have tripled to around $300 million because of the quality of its ammunition, anti-tank guided missiles, rocket launchers and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
“Our defence exports have been rising substantially because the arms and ammunition we manufacture meet international standards,” Maj-Gen Mohammad Farooq, Director General of the Defence Export Promotion Organisation (Depo), told Dawn.
“We even won a contract in the face of tough competition from developed countries to manufacture parts of Boeing aircraft,” he said.
