Marketability of Pakistani Business Ventures Essay

Introduction

The PESTLE Analysis is a type of strategy that is used for marketing analysis that takes into consideration the macro-environmental factors. To determine the prospects of marketing growth or decline, business positions, or to determine future prospects of business operations, one must take into consideration the political, economic, social, and technological forces that influence the marketability of a business undertaking in a certain country.

The PESTLE Analysis is known also as the STEP. This means that the market analyst takes into consideration the social, technological, economic and political forces of a country to determine the market trends of a certain business in a specific country. Another variant of the PESTLE analysts is the STEEP which means that the market analyst, in order to determine the marketability of a certain business venture in a certain country takes into scrutiny the social, technological, environmental, economic and political aspects of a country. The PESTLE is also a variant of the PESTLE since it takes into consideration, the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal forces of a country, to determine the marketability of an undertaking in a country. In the same vein, the variant LEPEST will demand that the analyst reads carefully the legal, the economic, the political, the environmental, the social and the technological underpinnings as a country’s macro-environmental factors. Having seen that the most important macro-environmental factors of marketing in a country are the political, economic, social, and technological aspects, it is now incumbent that how these factors affect the marketability of business ventures in Pakistan be analyzed.

Political and Economic Factors

Under the political factors, the Pakistani government reviewed its tax policy by increasing the credit rate of investment tax from 15%- 30%. The aftermath of this approach is that this is going to encourage the growth of both investments and inflation. This will in turn translate into a situation whereby there is surplus production but very low demand and marketability. On the other hand, the Pakistani employment laws have well spelt out labour rights. For instance, Article 11 prohibits all forms of slavery, child labour and forcefully conscripted labour. Article 17 allows the formation of trade unions and the exercising of the freedom of association. The most important article that promotes trading is Article 18 which entrenches the citizen’s rights to enter the lawful profession and to carry out lawful business or trade. Close to this effect is Article 37 (e) which ensures that there are safe working conditions especially for both women and other workers of young age. This ensures that there is increased business ethics and values which increase the growth of the business world and global marketability (Pakistanian Institute of Economic Development, 1991 pp. 132).

The laws of environmental regulations in Pakistan have also been crafted into the penal code to ward off cases of massive degradation of the environment. For instance, there is the clean air policy was formed by the Pakistani Environmental Law Association to plummet cases of vehicular and industrial pollution. It is on this backdrop that industries that produce high levels of carbon in Pakistan are subjected to additional 9% taxation.

As touching on trade restrictions, Pakistan does well in promoting trade and marketability in the sense that it has made its economy 56.8% free, according to the assessment that was carried out in 2008. This made Pakistan clinch position 93 in the world’s freest economies. Having been ranked the 16^th out of the top 30 countries in the Asian Pacific, Pakistan encourages trade by the fact that as a country, it scores moderately in fiscal, business and labour freedom. This allows business growth and marketability. In addition to the above prospects, although the Pakistani government has a high tax rate, government spending is yet found to be below. This rids the country of the danger of sinking into foreign debt and inflation. However, for the international traders, the prospects of making a very lucrative business are minimal since imports are still subject to a very high tariff rate and stringent non-tariff constraints. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that the legal system does not efficiently offer reliable property rights due to the fact that its judicial system is highly inundated with a huge backlog of cases (Akhtar, 1999 pp. 20). Pakistan as a political unit has suffered political instability after President Pervez Musharaff took power through a non-violent coup. This has facilitated acts of terrorism along the regions bordering Afghanistan. In spite of all these, the country has nevertheless grown economically due to its manufacturing sector and direct foreign investment.

Social Aspects

Pakistan has a very high population of about 180,000,000, placing it as the world’s sixth most populated country in the world, and therefore being even worse than Russia. This makes it bad for business since this high population outweighs the available social and economic amenities that are needed for successful entrepreneurship. However, the age distribution favours trade and commercialism since the youthful age bracket (18-55 years) make up 65% of the country’s total population. This is the age that provides labour and is therefore expedient for business growth. Those ranging from 1-17 years make up 15% of the population while those that are 58 and above are 20%, The country is dominated by Islam as a religion, being the world’s second-largest country as far as being populated by Moslems is concerned (Gill, 1992 pp. 900). Therefore, it is easy to see that this country is still very conservative and would therefore not be so conducive to enterprises that deviate from the conventional patterns of transactions. For instance, bikinis and G- strings would not do well therein.

Technology and the Environment

Pakistan experiences average growth in the field of technological advancement by 25%. This marks a positive aspect for the increment in business and marketing since global trade is highly hinged on technology. In addition to this, since the mid-1990s, the National Highway Authority has ensured the construction of motorways that connect every Pakistanian city with one another. Next to these, there is a dense network of the railway network, and five international airports besides other local airports to facilitate transport, on which trade is highly reliant.

The environmental conditions of Pakistan are made up of cold winters and hot summers in the southern region, while the southern region is normally characterized by a mild climate. Sandy beaches, lagoons, icy beaches, temperate forests and mangrove swamps characterize the environmental surroundings of Pakistan. The availability of water hugely supports business.

Reference

Pakistan Economic Development Institute, The review of Pakistanian development, Pakistan Institute of Development on Economics, University of California, 7^th Ed, 1991.

Akhtar, A, The Pakistanian economy, 4^th Ed., University of Michigan, Michigan, 1999.

Gill, K., and L. Smith, International Research on Pakistan, 6^th Ed, Gale Research Company, 1992.