Trade delegation leader and Minister of Export Development and International Trade of Sri Lanka, Professor G. L. Peiris has emphasised the need of utilising opportunities for boosting the trade between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Addressing the members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Friday night, he invited Pakistani business community to see Sri Lanka seriously for investment and boosting two way trades.
He said Sri Lanka had prominent advantages. It has Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) with European Union (EU) countries, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Pakistan and India. Those avenues could be used for mutual benefits, he added. The minister said that Pakistan could export goods to Sri Lanka and after value-addition the goods could be re-exported to India and EU countries.
He said the business community had to do great deal of work to utilise those avenues for their benefit. He said that Sri Lanka Board of Investment provided one-window facility to investors. There is no restriction of repatriation of foreign exchange earning.
The minister pointed out that Sri Lanka had done a lot in human resource development sector. The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is around 99 percent with highly skilled labour.
Professor G. L. Peiris said that Sri Lanka was seriously looking for development of service-oriented industry. Women entrepreneurs could play a big role in improving trade relations, he added. He said that Sri Lanka wanted to make free trade agreement (FTA) with Pakistan a real model for Saarc countries.
Replying a question, he said that Sri Lanka had a provision under FTA to export 10,000 tones of tea to find its way to Pakistan. Relying to another question, he emphasised the need for increasing direct flights between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Sometime we had to go to Dubai for flight to Lahore and Islamabad, he added.
Welcoming the guests, KCCI President Majyd Aziz emphasised the need of full utilisation of FTA facilities by both countries, and also pleaded for early dissemination of existing information about trade, investment, changes in laws, and other related avenues.
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