The Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan, Tomas Rosander, has urged the business and industrial community of Pakistan to diversify their exports as there was plenty of room for improving trade with Sweden. Exchanging views during his visit to Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), he said: "We have very good bases to build on relations and further expand trade ties between the two countries. All we need to do now is to bring maximum foreign companies here and we have been encouraging Swedish companies to visit Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad," he added.
Referring to substantial improvement in the security situation of Pakistan, he said that the Swedish embassy's resources for trade promotion remained limited during the past five to 10 years, but now with improved security situation, the embassy is looking forward to enhance its resources for increasing trade promotional activities between the two countries.
The envoy also stressed the need for increasing trade delegations' visits to each other's countries, besides organizing seminars and other trade promotional activities on regular basis. He further said that they recognized Karachi as hub of economic activities and thus the input provided by the business and industrial community was of immense importance to Sweden.
He underscored the need for making joint efforts to successfully deal with lack of knowledge about the Pakistan's potential. The KCCI president Younus Muhammad Bashir said that Karachi, being the financial and economic hub of Pakistan, offers profitable investment opportunities and additional facilities for investment and joint ventures to Swedish Investors.
He said that the city's overall security situation has improved to a certain extent in the wake of law-enforcement agencies' untiring efforts. "This city is an attractive place for Swedish investors, who can surely earn maximum profits by setting up their businesses or undertaking joint ventures", he opined.
The KCCI chief said that the Karachi Chamber was keenly interested to strengthen trade ties and explore new bilateral trade prospects with Sweden as Pakistan's improved relations and enhanced trade with Sweden would prove beneficial for both the economies. Referring to Pakistan-Sweden trade and economic relations, the KCCI chief pointed out that during fiscal year 2015, Pakistan's exports to Sweden stood at $149.56 million as against last year's $138.94m, showing an increase of 7.6 per cent. On the import side, an increase of 80pc was witnessed during fiscal year 2015, whereas Pakistan imported goods worth $372.88m from Sweden as against imports of $206.59m during last year, he added.
He was of the view that there was a significant potential to increase trade between the two countries as Sweden was a major importer of food items and clothing and as such Pakistan can enhance exports of value added textile items to Sweden. Besides, there was a considerable potential to export fresh fruits, frozen foods items and dairy products to Sweden from Pakistan, he added. He was of the view that bilateral trade between the nations could be increased manifold by effective utilization of `Bilateral Investment Treaty' and trade talks, exhibitions and other trade promotion strategies.
He invited the Swedish companies to participate in the `13th My Karachi - Oasis of Harmony' exhibition scheduled to be held in the city in March, 2016. The upcoming exhibition will be providing an excellent opportunity to Swedish businessmen and industrialists to showcase their products and in creating strong linkages with the business and industrial community of Karachi by holding B2B meetings in a cordial atmosphere. Sweden Embassy's second secretary Ms Mahyad Tavakoli, Consulate's official Valentine D'Souza, KCCI's senior vice president Zia Ahmed Khan, vice president Muhammad Naeem Sharif, `My Karachi' exhibition committee's chairman Muhammad Idrees and managing committee members were present on the occasion.
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