When entrepreneurial ambitions meet with reality

Aqib Mehmood, an entrepreneur connected to the world by a government agency to enhance the nation's exports, has now made Indonesia his base for conducting business, aiming to overcome Pakistan's image problem, which was leading to exploitation by foreign buyers. Mehmood, a business partner at a small enterprise, Masairr, was a student of business studies nine years ago at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, when he decided to launch a pink salt export business. However, he did not know how to connect to the world and find buyers. The jump-start came when the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) became a bridge and "connected us to the world", said Mehmood. The help from TDAP brought his business to the global map and he has now become a bridge between Pakistani firms and Indonesian buyers.