Pakistan's designated Ambassador to Philippine Dr Aman Rashid on Thursday vowed to strengthen trade linkages with Philippine as he sees ample opportunities for bilateral trade enhancement in both the counties. He stated this during an interactive session with the business community on his visit to Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) head office.
President FPCCI Zubair F. Tufail, and Voice President Ishtiaq Baig, Honorary Consul General of Philippine at Karachi Dr Imran Yousaf Muhammad, and a large number of businessmen also attended the session. The ambassador said he is quite optimistic about attracting trade and investment opportunities in Pakistan as the incumbent government, in the last couple of years, has positively improved law and order and has successfully managed to cope with the energy challenges. Elaborating he said that security and power crises were the major concerns of our foreign investors whenever they were invited to carryout business and investment activities in Pakistan. Dr Imran Yousaf Muhammad said that the existing two way trade volume of some USD112 million between Pakistan and Philippine does not reflect potential that the both counties have. He said Pakistan's imports are USD76 million and exports are standing at USD36 million.
In order to reduce the current trade imbalance, he asked the local businessmen to come forward and find export business market in Philippine. He said besides focusing on European Union (EU) counties, Middle East, and Unite States, we have to strengthen trade ties with Asian countries like Philippine which offers opportunities in various sectors including rice, fruits, leather, pharmaceutical sector etc. Meanwhile the pharmaceutical sector representatives highlighted some regulatory impediments with Philippine to export their products. They said as many as 37 Pakistani companies are exporting medicines worth USD100 million; however, licenses of some companies have been expired while the Pilipino regulator has not so far renewed them, neither the concerned officials visited Pakistan, they deplored. Zubair F. Tufail, Mirza Ishtiaq Baig and others also spoke on this occasion.
Comments
Comments are closed.