Sialkot District is one of the districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan located in the north-east of the province and is the 13th largest city by population. Sialkot is a wealthy city relative to the rest of Pakistan and South Asia with a per capita income in 2014 estimated at $2800. The city has been noted for its entrepreneurial spirit, and productive business climate that have made Sialkot an example of a small Pakistani city that has emerged as a “world-class manufacturing hub”. The relatively small city exported approximately $2 billion worth of goods in 2015, or about 10% of Pakistan’s total exports.
Sialkot has been noted as a “world-class manufacturing hub” with strong export industries in the fields of leather, sporting goods, and surgical instruments industry. The Sialkot Dry Port offers local producers quick access to Pakistani Customs, as well as to logistics and transportation and manage its position as one of Pakistan’s most prosperous cities. Its sporting goods firms have been particularly successful, and have produced items for global brands and produce footballs for 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Sialkot being one of the major contributor in exports and the production destination of various International Brands still struggling for the expansion of its own market. Branding has emerged as an important strategy in public sector dominantly at the level of cities as the competition within the cities will intensify their performances through capital mobility and entrepreneurial skill set. In acquiring new investment to make the city more competitive not only for local investors but for the foreigners as well. This city branding is a part and parcel of urban Governance system so, in general city branding is considered as tool based on the philosophy of customer that offer city’s customers as well as attract foreigners through their brand image and offer quality products. Asian global cities which successfully caught up with their peers economically are now applying city branding model to intensify their global image like global cities but unfortunately, this the missing factor in our urban Governance system.
As we all know that Sialkot has international fame for its sports & surgical products, leather goods etc act as nucleus of cottage industry and all its manufactured goods are exported to USA, and other European nations under the brand names of leading brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Green hill and variety of other surgical brands and the city have more than ten thousand registered companies but special focus is required at the level of policy making and Governance to break the barriersin the way of SMEs to introduce own product brands in international markets.
Sialkot’s business community has joined hands with the local government to maintain the city’s infrastructure, as the local government has limited capacity to fund such maintenance. The business community was instrumental in the establishment of Sialkot’s Dry Port in 1985 and largely funded the Sialkot International Airport opened in 2011 as Pakistan’s first privately owned public airport, which now offers direct flights from Sialkot to Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates but the city has more capacity to deliver which need shifting from factor & efficiency driven economy to Innovation driven economy because In the world of ‘Globalization’ countries are evaluated on the basis of increased trade and cultural exchange along with the significant modification of the sovereignty of countries so, countries needs to be competitive by building their national brands by promotion of local goods and services in international market.
[box type=”note” align=”” class=”” width=””]Urooj Aijaz (MD Innovation summit by IRP/Faculty Bahria University Karachi) [/box]