Bangladeshi HC visits APTMA

Bangladeshi High Commissioner Sohrab Hussain visited on Monday the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). Chairman S M Tanveer welcomed him at the association's Punjab House. In his speech, the APTMA chairman talked about his association's significance in Pakistan's economy, saying Pakistan's total exports to Bangladesh stood at $718 million in 2013-14, out of which the textile exports were recorded at $709 million.
"The share of cotton cloth and cotton yarn is higher among all textile sector products to Bangladesh, which was recorded at $454 million and $117 million respectively in 2013-14," he added. He said, "There is an urgent need for beginning of a direct shipping line between Karachi and Chittagong, which will take five to 10 days as compared to 25 to 30 days at present due to indirect shipping lines between the two countries."
About raw material exports to Bangladesh, he said the exports played a vital role in that country's garment industry, which required more co-operation on the front of bilateral trade relations. "The level of bilateral trade and investment can be improved by enhancing knowledge sharing, frequent exchange of information at the institutional level with counterpart organisations and adopting measures to increase bilateral trade and investment missions besides sharing technical know-how based on comparative advantages, he added.
He also underscored the need to resolve banking issues, saying the letter-of-credit (LC) payments were being cleared with a delay of 35 days. In his speech, group leader Gohar Ejaz praised the Bangladeshi High Commissioner's visit to Pakistan, saying it was opening a new window of opportunities and urged the need to explore business-to-business relations.
The visiting Bangladesh envoy welcomed proposals put forward by Chairman S M Tanveer and assured him of resolving the stumbling blocks in trade ties and also of dealing with visa issues on priority and hoped the enhanced bilateral trade relations would be beneficial to both countries.
He also shared steps taken up by his government in maximising the opportunity of generalised system of preferences (GSP) plus, and refuted a string of claims that Bangladesh had opposed GSP Plus facility for Pakistan. After the meeting, Chairman Tanveer presented a memento to the guest.