Turkish businessmen are ready to initiate joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts, as they are convinced that ample opportunities lie in a number of sectors including textiles, construction and education in Pakistan. The head of a 28-member Turkish business delegation, Mesut Yaran stated this while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday.
Provincial Secretary Fazl Abbas Maken and Chief Executive Officer Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBI&T) Saadat Muzaffar were also present in the meeting. He called for exchange of business delegations so that both the sides could have first hand knowledge of the available opportunities in Pakistan and Turkey. Both the countries have marvellous untapped business potential that needs to be realised by maximising the involvement of private sectors of the two countries, he added.
Mesut Yaran said that the Turkish delegation would also visit the flood affected areas for having an assessment of the losses caused by the recent devastating floods and hoped that the economic relation between the two countries would strengthen further to create a win-win situation for Pakistan and Turkey.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik said that the Lahore Chamber was taking immediate and concrete steps to enhance the volume of trade between the two countries from existing $663 million to dollar two billions. With a view to achieve the target, focused and collaborative efforts would be made, he said and added that strong linkage would be established with Turkish businessmen for having market access to Europe, North Africa and Middle East.
The LCCI President said that the Lahore Chamber through its own efforts was continuously working on an agenda of closer co-operation between Turkey and Pakistan. To supplement these efforts, we have established Turkey - Pakistan Business Council by signing an agreement with Foreign Economic Relations Board, Turkey. He said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Lahore Chamber and Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and Industry needs to be reinforced.
Malik also lauded the efforts made by Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif for strengthening the linkages among the business communities of Turkey and Pakistan. The role of Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) is quite exemplary as they are organising conferences like they held in April 2010 in Lahore where over 200 leading CEOs of both the countries were engaged to discuss ways of exploring investment opportunities for Turkish companies in Punjab. The investment commitment of US $600 million made by Turkish businessmen is a positive sign particularly in the context of current share of Turkey in Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan which was mere US $0.8 million in 2009-10, he added.
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