LAHORE: The US Commercial Counsellor John Coronado has said that there is a strong potential for surging up bilateral trade between Pakistan and the US through Business to Business matchmaking.
He expressed these views while talking to the Aptma leadership during his visit to the office of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) the other day along with the team of officials of US Embassy. Aptma delegation headed by the Central Chairman Adil Bashir included Hamid Zaman, Central Vice Chairman, Abdul Rahim Nasir, Chairman Northern Zone, Aamir Sheikh, Senior Vice Chairman, Kamran Arshad, Vice Chairman and Mohammad Raza Baqir, Executive Director.
US Commercial Counsellor said that there was a huge potential of mutual economic cooperation between the business communities of both the countries in the fields of textile in particular and other areas like agriculture, energy and Information Technology etc in general.
He urged Aptma members to explore the avenues to enhance bilateral trade between Pakistan and the US and offered full assistance and cooperation of the US Embassy in exploring the potential partners and harnessing the business opportunities in the shortest possible time.
He expressed the hope that despite economic meltdown in wake of COVID-19, vibrant textile industry of Pakistan can exploit the economic vacuum created due to lockdown in the regional countries.
In response to a query regarding inordinate delays in issuance of US visas, he informed that visa facility is presently restricted to the humanitarian, education and medical needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he assured Aptma members that commercial section of the embassy would make best efforts to facilitate Aptma members in availing business visa for travelling to the US for business purposes.
Earlier, Chairman Aptma, Adil Bashir made a detailed presentation on the textile sector of Pakistan. He said Pakistan has set an ambitious export target of US 39 billion dollars for the current year as against the actual exports of $25.30 billion during 2020-21.
He requested the visiting dignitary to use his best offices in extending duty-free access to Pakistan in the US market on the pattern of GSP Plus of the European Union.
Chairman Aptma Punjab Abdul Rahim Nasir also spoke on the occasion and hoped that bilateral exchange of business delegations and close coordination between the Commercial Section of the US Embassy and Aptma would help identifying trade and investment opportunities for entrepreneurs of both the countries.
A memento was also presented to the visiting envoy at the end of the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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