WWF-Pakistan holds workshop: ‘Pakistan-EU bilateral trade increases by over 78pc’

KARACHI: Director Freshwater Programme, WWF-Pakistan, Sohail Ali Naqvi while addressing at a workshop held by WWF-Pakistan on Wednesday informed the participants the GSP Plus status has helped Pakistan grow its bilateral trade with the EU over 78 percent during 2014-2023.

Naqvi presented an overview of the GSP Plus status of Pakistan and highlighted how the country has benefitted from the extensive trade concessions from this facility.

“Bilateral trade between Pakistan and the European Union has increased by more than 78 percent,” he added.

He said the GSP plus status to Pakistan with other 13 other countries has brought about the trade growth over the period.

“An efficient reporting mechanism is required for the national efforts and country’s performance against the agenda of sustainable development,” he said.

The WWF-Pakistan organised the workshop to build capacities of the Environmental Protections Agencies (EPAs) of Sindh and Balochistan for improving compliance and reporting mechanism of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

The event was held as part of WWF-Pakistan’s project “International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES) – Application in Pakistan’s SMEs”.

It served as a platform to gather representatives from stakeholders, including the EPAs of both provinces and the UNDP SDGs Support Unit to discuss challenges and related environmental compliance.

Besides, devising an efficient mechanism for monitoring and reporting the provincial and national efforts in line with the SDGs and MEAs.

Naqvi presented a brief account of the ILES project and its contributions towards SDGs and MEAs, along with the tool developed under the project for SDG 12 reporting, i.e. responsible consumption and production.

Senior Director Programmes WWF-Pakistan, Dr Masood Arshad informed the workshop about WWF-Pakistan’s efforts towards creating harmony between environmental conservation, sustainable utilization of resources and the development of communities and industries.

“We have developed the required policies and frameworks, however collective action and partnerships are the need of the hour to effectively implement these policies for sustainable development in the country,” he said.

Imran Sabir, Director (Technical, Natural Resources), Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and Ghulam Murtaza Kalwar, Director Climate Change, Balochistan Environmental Protection Agency (BEPA) also discussed the challenges in environmental compliances in the coastal provinces.

Ahmed Hassan, Data Monitoring and Evaluation Expert at the UNDP SDGs Support Unit, discussed ways to improve the monitoring of national and provincial performance against SDGs and to report the data in an efficient manner. He also shared a tool developed by the UNDP SDGs Support Unit for reporting.

On the occasion all the stakeholders agreed to jointly collaborate for improving the reporting mechanism of SDGs and MEAs at the national level, which will help highlight the positive initiatives of Pakistan on a global scale.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023