Joint Ministerial Commission of Pakistan and Kenya will be held in Islamabad in December 2016, in order to discuss futuristic economic policies to fully exploit the US one billion dollar trade potential of the two countries. While addressing the members of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), Professor Julius Kibet Bitok, High Commissioner of Kenya said that private sector and business community of the two countries should play pivotal role in enhancing the bilateral trade and in this connection the Kenyan High Commission was ready to extend full support to the potential investors.
Commenting on the issue of duties on textile export, he said that FCCI should make recommendations to Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) to resolve this issue. He said that Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is best tool to resolve the duty related issues and hence both counties should start negotiations leading to FTA.
He said that Kenya is also organising a trade and investment conference to highlight the investment opportunities in Kenya. He invited the FCCI members to attend this conference and assured that he will also lend maximum support to FCCI to ink MoU with National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kenya. He also offered the business community to visit "Safari" in Kenya and told that online visa system has been introduced to facilitate the foreign visitors and tourists.
He also appreciated the proposal of organising single country exhibition and exchange of trade delegations and said that it will help the business community of two countries to understand each other and discuss the opportunity to launch joint venture, particularly, in the field of textile and value added sector.
He said that Pakistani businessmen could also have direct access to Uganda, Tanzania, Ruanda and Burundi. Earlier, in his address of welcome, Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry introduced FCCI and said that Faisalabad is third largest city of Pakistan and second in revenue generation, and added that Faisalabad has unique privilege to contribute 50 percent towards total national textile exports of Pakistan.
He said that FCCI has 5000 members within its fold which represent all segment of the economy. He said that Pakistan and Kenya enjoy good economic as well diplomatic relations. Nearly 2000 Pakistani are settled in Kenya and are also contributing their role in the overall development of Kenya, he added. Regarding bilateral trade, executive member FCCI Ahmed Hasan said relations between two countries are based on mutual cooperation which are growing with the passage of time.
He said during fiscal year 2015 Pakistani export to Kenya were US 278.80 million dollars as against the imports of US 349.23 million dollars hence the balance of trade is in favour of Kenya but there is still room to enhance the volume of trade between the two countries.
Comments
Comments are closed.