Romanian Trade Commissioner Ioan Campean has said that Romania, being a new member of European Union, offers a huge potential for Pakistani businessmen in a number of sectors including manufacturing, automotive parts, electric and electronic goods, wood processing, textiles, construction materials, food processing, infrastructure and real estate.
The Romanian Trade Commissioner was speaking at a seminar "Business Opportunities between Romania and Pakistan" at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday. LCCI President Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Chairman LCCI Standing Committee Diplomatic and Foreign Missions Faisal Iqbal Sheikh and Advisor to Trade Commissioner Atif S Farooqui also spoke.
The trade commissioner said Romania was the second largest market in Central and Eastern Europe with easy access to the CIS countries, Balkans, the Middle East and Northern Africa. He said two-way trade between Romania and Pakistan had been improving with every passing day but still a lot can be done to take the bilateral trade volume to desired levels.
"We believe that exchanges of businessmen can help boost the bilateral trade between the two friendly nations significantly," he said. He said Pakistan and Romania could also enhance their cooperation in agriculture, alternate energy sources and Information Technology.
In January 2007, he said, Romania became a member of European Union and this is an added advantage to the businessmen who would initiate joint ventures with their counterparts from East European nation.
He urged the business community to evolve an effective and sector-specific strategy in collaboration with Romanian businessmen for increasing the volume of two-way trade. He said that fast-changing global scenario demands an enhanced economic activity and exchange of trade delegation and joint exhibitions are pre-requisite in their regard.
Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Shahid Hassan Sheikh said there was a great potential of trade between the two countries. Pakistan is a producer of finest quality of textile articles, articles of apparel, carpets, surgical and sports goods, fruits and vegetables, leather products, plastic and plastic products, furniture, manmade filaments and pharmaceutical products, which Romania is importing in bulk quantities from rest of the world.
Similarly, Romania's main exports consist of metals and metal products, machinery and equipment, minerals and fuels, chemicals and agricultural products. He said that exchange of trade delegations from private sector can also help to bridge this gap.
We need to identify more products through in-depth market research to increase the range of tradable products, as many potential areas and product lines remain unexplored due to lack of information about each other's domestic markets chambers of commerce and diplomatic missions can play a vital role in this regard.
He said the Romanian engineering industry was a major contributor towards the economic growth of Romania. In Pakistan there is a strong potential and need for investment and transfer of technology in engineering sector.
He said Pakistan also direly needed collaboration in post harvest technology to take advantage of huge agro-based potential presently being wasted. Pakistan is a country of 160 million people and gateway to Central Asian States. It is the world's fifth largest producer of milk and a major producer of cotton, rice, wheat, sugarcane, vegetables and fruits.
The Romanian food processing industry is rich in experience and technology. "We would like your collaboration in the post harvest technology, food and fruit processing/preservation technology, dairy and poultry industry, frozen meat and fruit juices."
He said there was a large scope of cooperation in the fields of oil refineries and petrochemical plants, metallurgy/steel industry, hydro/thermal power plants, oil and gas exploration and mining, cement, fertilisers, machine building plants, agricultural machine and tools manufacturing plants as a base for Central Asian States, Gulf and other regional countries.
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