Head of the visiting Canadian Trade Delegation and former Minister for Industries, Canada, Sinclair Stevens has called upon the Pakistani manufacturers and exporters to tap the large market of North American countries including USA through Canada.
He described cheaper/lower Canadian currency in comparison to US dollar, free health and other services through public funded social sector development programmes and Export Development Corporation of Canada including a very few restrictions on trade between Canada and USA as additional advantages for exports through Canada.
In this context, he advised Pakistani manufacturers and exporters to concentrate on exports to Canada to easily access North American and USA markets and get benefits of the various incentives provided by the Canadian government.
He was speaking at a meeting with Chairman, Pakistan-Canada Business Council of FPCCI, Haroon Rashid, held at Federation House on Thursday.
He showed special interest in IT and Telecom sectors as the most potential fields for undertaking joint-venture by the two countries.
Highlighting the potential in IT sector he referred to India and observed that being a country of 140 million talented people Pakistan was no different than its neighbour.
About the prospects of North American and USA markets he gave example of Canada for having US $42 billion trade surplus with USA, out of which US $40 billion alone contributed by auto-sector. When asked about the interest of Canadian firms in establishing railway infrastructure in Pakistan, he said that Canadian had expertise in this field and the issue would soon been discussed at official level after which initially the project would be launched on relatively smaller scale.
Responding to the queries raised by the council members, he dispelled the impression that the Canadian authorities showed any ethnic bias in issuing visas to Pakistanis and assured that he would serious look into the matter to remove the grievances of Pakistani business community regarding visa problem.
On this occasion, alluding towards same preferential treatment of Canadian authorities Vice President, MCB and former president FPCCI, S.M. Muneer complained that MCB had applied to open a branch in Canada but despite the lapse of one year the application had not yet been approved and the case was still pending.
Rejecting all such notions he explained that Canada constituted 42% of its total trade with common wealth countries without showing any partiality to any country.
Earlier, welcoming the visiting foreign trade delegation, Chairman, Pakistan-Canada Business Council of FPCCI, Haroon Rashid underlined the need of enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries.
He said that bilateral trade between the two countries was gradually improving. Statistics revealed that trade volume had enhanced from $261 million in 1999-2000 to $327 million in the year 2002-2003, he added.
He stated that Canada had long been involved in the economic development of Pakistan and was the 12th largest investor and 15th largest trade partner of Pakistan.
Inviting the foreign delegation to invest in Pakistan, he further stated that as a result of financial and structural reforms undertaken by the present government the investment climate in the country was quite favourable for foreign investment as compared to other countries of the region.
Substantiating his assertion he pointed out that at present over six hundred multinational companies were working in the country, turning the corporate market in to a profitable entity and assuring high dividends to the investors.
Those who also spoke on the occasion were President, Pakistan-Canada Business Council, Anwar Merchant, Roger Gate, Samir Dossal, Raja Abdul Rehamn, Tariq Saeed and others.
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