Pakistan and Kuwait on Monday signed series of agreements and memorandums of understanding for enhancing bilateral economic relations including an MoU for setting up an oil refinery at Port Qasim.
President General Pervez Musharraf and Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah witnessed the signing ceremony.
The two sides also concluded an agreement on augmenting economic and technical co-operation and an MoU on development of small and medium enterprises.
Pakistan and Kuwait also inked an executive programme for the cultural, educational and information exchanges between the two countries.
An MoU was also signed for the development of Rawal Lake as a tourist resort.
Earlier, President Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan would welcome Kuwait's participation in development of Gwadar as a trade and energy corridor as visiting Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of the oil-rich country showed a keen interest in investment opportunities existing in Pakistan.
The visiting leaders, declared during talks at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, that Kuwaiti private companies will make substantive investment in the infrastructure projects in Pakistan.
Apprising the visiting leader of Pakistan's plans to facilitate regional commerce, president Musharraf said the newly developed southern sea port at Gwadar offers a natural and shortest link for South Asia, Central Asia and China with the Gulf region.
In this respect, he referred to his recent interaction with top regional countries at the SCO summit in Shanghai and CICA moot in Almaty, and said the landlocked Central Asian countries look up to Pakistan for sea access to the Gulf regions.
He said the Kuwaiti entrepreneurs could benefit from the opportunity to invest in building of infrastructure including oil storage facilities and warehouses at the port.
President Musharraf also spoke about the vast investment and joint venture opportunities existing in a host of prospective areas including infrastructure, information technology, housing and building, tourism, food processing etc.
He said a congenial business climate and strength of fundamentals of the economy on the back of a continuous robust growth have made Pakistan an attractive destination for international investors, whose growing confidence in the country's economic policies saw an inflow of dollars three billion foreign direct investment last year.
Reciprocating President Musharraf's desire for further expanding bilateral trade and economic co-operation, Sheikh Sabah said Kuwait sees with great admiration Pakistan's recent economic turnaround and vowed to encourage the public and private sectors of his oil-rich country to enhance their commerce and investment relations with Pakistan.
The two leaders appreciated the contribution of the Pakistani community to development of Kuwait.
The leaders of the two Muslim countries also discussed revitalisation of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the need for conflict resolution as a way out of turmoil affecting the world.
The two leaders also discussed a wide spectrum of regional and international issues of common concern.
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