Dr Song Jong-Hwan visits Lahore Chamber: sector-specific strategy to help increase trade: Korean envoy

Ambassador of Korea to Pakistan Dr Song Jong-Hwan on Thursday said that all out efforts were being made to enhance interaction between the business doing people of Pakistan and Korea in order to increase the volume of two-way trade. He said this while talking to LCCI acting President Mian Tariq Misbah on Thursday. The Ambassador maintained that a proper sector-specific strategy made to identify the challenge coming in the way of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Korea.
"Korea wants to contribute to the economy of Pakistan by sharing trade-related information," he said. He was optimistic that the trade volume would increase with passage of time in this regard the measures has been taken. He said that the non-availability of required trade-related information was the biggest hurdle in the way of Korean investment in Pakistan.
Identifying a number of areas for mutual co-operation, he said there was a need for expertise-sharing as both the countries have a lot to learn from each other. He urged the LCCI to arrange a business delegation to Korea so that Pakistani businessmen could get first-hand knowledge about opportunities there. Speaking on the occasion, LCCI acting President Tariq Misbah said that South Korea has been an important trading partner of Pakistan in eastern Asian region. It comes at 12th place among the top importing countries and at 17th place among the top exporting countries for Pakistan, he added.
He said that total volume of trade between Pakistan and Korea was around US $1.26 billion in 2013. It is good to see that both the countries are consistently maintaining it at above US $1 billion. It may be noted that Pakistan's major exports to Korea are beverages & vinegar, cotton, raw hides and skins, copper, fish, salt, sulphur, oil seeds, fruits and sports goods etc. Pakistan's imports from Korea include ships & other floating structures, machinery, iron & steel, articles of plastic, electrical equipment, mineral fuels, organic chemicals, tanning & dyeing extracts, pharmaceutical products and a host of other items.
Tariq Misbah said that considering the size of Korean economy, which is one of the trillion economies of the world, there is still a lot of room to expand the trade and investment relations between the two countries. He said that the volume of total trade could be doubled on joint efforts of public and private sector organisations of Pakistan and Korea. Both countries have decades-old economic relations and experienced good outcomes of joint ventures in various fields like telecommunications, electronics, chemical industry, automobiles industry and construction, he added.
He said Korean companies are also actively participating in infrastructure projects like highway construction and power generation etc. Tariq Misbah said Korean investors can be provided best assistance with regard to assessing Pakistan as a profitable country with a relatively higher degree of return on investment.
He said Pakistan is located between two economic giants-China and India. The trickledown effect of economic development taking place in the region will certainly promise good fortunes to foreign investors, he said. Korean Counsellor in Islamabad Park Jung-Ho, DG Korea Trade & Investment Promotion Agency Sung Byung Hoon, former LCCI presidents Mian Muzaffar Ali, Irfan Qaiser Sheikh and former senior vice president Malik Tahir Javed also spoke.