Pakistan’s President plans flying visit to check out Navman

Auckland-based navigation technology specialist Navman plays host to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf today, as he continues a three-day visit to strengthen political ties and promote trade between the two countries.

President Musharraf has brought with him a 55-strong delegation, including business representatives from natural gas technology and agricultural machinery companies.

But other than a trip to a dairy farm to watch a rotary milking shed in operation, Navman is the only industrial site to be visited.

A Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry spokeswoman could not confirm whether the Navman visit was requested by the New Zealand or Pakistan side, but did say Pakistan has an interest in global positioning systems technology.

"It builds on a [New Zealand Trade and Enterprise] trip to Pakistan recently where options in this high-tech field were looked at," she said.

A spokeswoman for Navman said the company did not expect to sign any deals today but was open-minded about trading with Pakistan.

"Who knows what will happen in the future. We're a business. We've got to obviously be open to anything that would be beneficial to the company."

She added that although brief, the half-hour visit gave both sides an opportunity to learn more about each other.

Hard on the heels of last month's Chinese delegation visit to Navman's new $4 million administration and research facility, the Pakistani trip adds to the company's status as an economic success story with political clout.

This month Navman received nearly $1m from the Government towards developing a marine navigation device.

Navman was bought by US marine and leisure technology company Brunswick for $108 million last year and is expected to generate revenue of about $400 million this year.