Made Here, Branded Elsewhere
Pakistan has shown it can make what the world buys. Owning the brand is a harder task, and CPEC 2.0 will not deliver it on its own.
Every four years, a Pakistani city makes the world’s most closely watched football, but the name printed on it belongs to someone else. Sialkot’s Forward Sports has been reported as the maker of Adidas’s Trionda, the 2026 World Cup ball, after supplying earlier tournaments. The labour and craftsmanship are Pakistani; the brand and customer relationship belong to Adidas.
That gap between making a product and owning it was the theme of a stakeholder roundtable organised by the National Centre for Brand Development (NCBD) in Islamabad on October 6. Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal called for a national branding strategy to move Pakistan from low-value commodity exports towards differentiated products, and said the country must go beyond being a manufacturer for global brands. The strategy would bring together seven pillars, from culture and exports to tourism and sports. Participants were asked for ideas on a country brand framework and slogan. This is a strategy in formation, not a policy with results.
The numbers show urgency. The World Bank’s October 2025 Pakistan Development Update records that exports of goods and services fell from an average of 16% of GDP in the 1990’s to about 10.4% in 2024, while export growth has been driven more by prices than quality or innovation. The minister contrasted Pakistan with Vietnam, whose goods exports reached about $475 billion in 2025; Pakistan's were $32.3 billion in FY2025, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. Yet Vietnam's lesson is subtler than the gap. Its statistics office attributes 77.3 per cent of 2025 exports to foreign-invested firms. Vietnam's surge is largely a story of manufacturing scale inside foreign-led supply chains.
A factory is one link in a chain. Research, design, intellectual property, branding, distribution, customer data and after-sales service are others, and economists have long observed that the manufacturing stage in the middle can earn thinner margins than the stages on either side. Trade statistics record what leaves the port, not who keeps the margin.
A brand, though, is not a logo, and a slogan cannot substitute for competitive firms. Ownership raises value capture only when backed by quality, design, reliable supply, standards compliance and consumer trust. The World Bank's Enterprise Survey data are sobering: only 2 per cent of Pakistani firms reported introducing a new product or process over three years, against 28 per cent in low- and middle-income countries and 38 per cent in upper-middle-income countries.
This is where CPEC 2.0 matters. Its second phase, launched at the 14th Joint Cooperation Committee in Beijing in September 2025 and organised around five corridors, shifts emphasis from energy and roads towards industrialisation, export-oriented manufacturing and technology transfer, with special economic zones (SEZs) as anchor platforms. Notified SEZs rose from seven in 2019 to 44 by January 2026, yet the investment minister acknowledged in May that SEZ investment and employment targets were missed, with only four zones reportedly partially operational in 2025. Notified is not built. And even a successful relocation of Chinese industry could deliver the Vietnamese outcome: more output, not necessarily more ownership. Pakistan could become a larger factory floor for other people's labels.
So Pakistan needs both legs of a dual strategy. Contract manufacturing and CPEC-linked relocation earn foreign exchange and build skills; the FY26 budget's five-year tariff-reduction plan, which the World Bank says should lower exporters' input costs, supports them. In parallel, capable firms in sectors such as sports goods, surgical instruments and apparel should be helped to launch own-label lines, using joint ventures and SEZ clusters as classrooms in design, standards and marketing rather than only as order books.
What can the NCBD realistically do? It cannot manufacture brands. It can supply market intelligence, advise on positioning, packaging and design, help firms with certification and trademark registration abroad, and connect small exporters with buyers and platforms. Since several public agencies already support industrial cooperation, trade promotion and SMEs, success depends on coordination, firms willing to invest their own money, and results measured in export data.
The practical steps are modest. Begin with a few sectors. Offer matched, time-limited support for design, certification and foreign trademark registration, tied to export results. Encourage SEZ and joint-venture terms that include local supplier development and skills transfer alongside contract production. Widen access to finance: as of 2023, fewer than 10 per cent of registered exporters had formal financing facilities, says the World Bank. And publish indicators that can be audited: the share of exports sold under Pakistani-owned brands, local suppliers' share in SEZ output, trademarks registered abroad, and export unit values.
The diagnosis deserves to be taken seriously. Pakistan has shown it can make things the world buys. CPEC 2.0 can enlarge the factory floor; whether it also enlarges ownership is a choice for firms and policymakers. A logo cannot deliver that; companies can, and the state's task is to clear the road.
Opinion pieces reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily an institutional position of PIVRA.