The Swiss government will fund a two-year UN Global Compact programme on business practices and corporate social responsibility. This was said by Martin Bienz, Consul General of Switzerland while speaking at a reception hosted to observe the Swiss National Day. The chief guest on the occasion was Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.
Before the beginning of the proceedings, a minute's silence was observed for the victims of the plane crash in Islamabad and those affected by the floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Bienz said the UN Global Compact is a strategic policy related to corporate social responsibility that defines 10 globally accepted principles on issues like human rights, labour, environment and anticorruption.
The Swiss government fully supports this initiative and will fund these principles through the UN Global Compact Pakistan Local Network. The Swiss Consul General encouraged Pakistani and multinational companies to join this campaign as this would be beneficial for Pakistan's image and products in the international community. Speaking about bilateral trade relations between Pakistan and Switzerland, the Swiss Consul General said that the economic ties between the two countries can be traced to as far back as 1861 when the Volkart Brothers, a leading cotton trading house opened their first subsidiary in Karachi.
Currently, Switzerland ranks fifth in terms of foreign direct investment in Pakistan and Swiss based multinational companies have invested USD 1.2 billion in the past seven years in areas like food processing, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering, banking and other service sectors.
He said bilateral trade has shown consistent growth and is picking up in the aftermath of the global recession with trade volume likely to exceed 400 million Swiss francs. Textiles and garments are Pakistan's principal exports to Switzerland while pharmaceutical products and raw materials are Swiss exports to Pakistan. The Swiss Consul General thanked Pakistanis and particularly Karachiites for their hospitality in making his few years stay in Karachi memorable.-PR
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