KARACHI: In a bid to reposition Pakistan’s image in terms of investment potential, credit worthiness, export opportunities, tourism potential and international relations, the Ministry of Commerce has decided to launch national brand-building initiative. In this regard, Brand Pakistan initiative will be launched at the opening ceremony of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP)’s Expo Pakistan event in November 2017. The ministry said that this is the first step to the launch of a sustained campaign working under the banner “Brand Pakistan” which will ensure that results are shown in the manufacturing, investment, leisure, tourism as well as green holiday’s sectors. Under this initiative, ministry intends to promote competitiveness of Pakistan’s goods and services inviting serious and fresh investment in Pakistan’s liberal investment regime, enhancing the appreciation of environmental impact on national attractiveness and improving the image and change the perception of Pakistan and its products internally and externally. There shall be promotion of soft capital strengths such as sports, music, culture and cuisine, branding the unique competencies of towns, cities and places, creating ownership of the country’s brand equity assets by stakeholders, enhancing commonality and uniformity in country messages among various agencies, government, media and other stakeholders and enhancing the level of awareness on the many strengths of Pakistani products and services amongst its clients. The ministry intends to engage all stakeholders from both the government (Commerce, Textiles, Industries, Tourism, Investment, etc.) and the private sectors (exporters, industrialists, traders, entrepreneurs, agriculturists, successful SME’s etc.) as partners in this campaign. The campaign will consist of two phases including three to four months-launch of Brand Pakistan at Expo Pakistan 2017 and in phase 2 roll out the campaign of implementation of Brand Pakistan and it will last for a longer period of time. Brand value will reposition Pakistan as a business and manufacturing hub as a first step particularly in view of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). According to the ministry, the campaign activities will broadly be divided into two main areas; international portfolio and domestic portfolio. The international portfolio shall involve activities such as engaging international thought journalists, leaders, opinion makers, development of an effective web portal, e-marketing, targeted advertising to influence support towards Brand Pakistan and other similar initiatives. Meanwhile the domestic portfolio shall focus on ensuring that Pakistanis live up to the brand promise that is being communicated and promoted to the global community. Public relations, brand ambassadors and mass media advertising will primarily be used to create hype and sustain the momentum for the positive propaganda of the National Branding Campaign. Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2017.