Consul General of the United State of America, Lahore, Colleen Crenwelge has said that US Consulate General (CG) is trying its optimum best to further deepen the existing relations between Pakistan and America. She was addressing the business Community in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) here Thursday.
She told that a large number of American companies are already working in Pakistan while US government is also undertaking number of welfare and technical projects. She told that US want to initiate a new era of cordial relations between the two countries.
Michael Guinan Public Affairs Officer disclosed that English language courses have been launched in Punjab with American collaboration. As many as 1435 students are getting training under this programme. "They belong to different cities of this province including Faisalabad," he told and added that each students cost 900 dollars while their trainers are also Pakistanis. He informed told that a programme in this regard has been launched Thursday in Education University Faisalabad. Hassan Raza Commercial Specialist US Consulate General told that Pakistan and America are collaborating in different sectors of economy including agriculture, energy and education etc.. About agriculture, he told that number of training programme has been conducted to increase per Acer yield in Pakistan while efforts have been expedited to introduce high yielding seed varieties of different crops. He told that he will also facilitate Pakistani seed importers to establish direct contacts with American seed companies.
Regarding solar energy, he told that a conference on this cheap source of energy is scheduled to be held in December this year in USA. He told that he will provide details of this conference so that interested FCCI members could participate in it. About project businesses, he told that he will provide a form and requested FCCI members to give their maximum technical details so that he could arrange B2B meetings with their relevant American counterparts.
He also assured to support a delegation of female entrepreneurs to America; however, FWCCI should directly contact the concerned American institutes in this regard.
Earlier in his address of welcome president Syed Zia Alumdar Hussain briefly introduced Faisalabad and FCCI. He told that Pakistan and American relations have witnessed ups and downs but it is a hard fact that bilateral trade always remained in favour of Pakistan. He told that Pakistani export is around 3.8 billion while import is only 2.9 billion dollars. He opined that in view of protracted Afghan war, this trade volume is just a peanut.
He acknowledged that America is always supporting Pakistan in various fields. In 80's USA provided latest weapons to Pakistan while bilateral relation also increased considerably in technology and other development sectors. He particularly appreciated the American cooperation in controlling electricity line losses in Pakistan. Similarly America also helped in replacement of agriculture tube wells with efficient tube wells.
Continuing Syed Zia Alumdar Hussain said that in view of our understanding the trade volume between two countries must be around 10 billion dollars and in this connection both countries should make serious efforts. He told that delegation of IMF and World Bank visited FCCI this year and now US investors must start to invest in Pakistan as cheep human resource is available in abundance in this country.
He said that America should also play its role in dispelling negative impression about Pakistan as law and order situation has now improved considerably. In this connection, he also demanded that travel advisory must be withdrawn forthwith.
During question answer session Shahid Mumtaz Bajwa, Chaudhary Muhammad Boota, Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, Haleem Akhtar Malik, Quratt-ul-Ain, Muhammad Bilal and Inam Afzal Khan raised interesting questions.
Later Robina Amjad President Faisalabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FWCCI) presented FCCI shield to Colleen Crenwelge Consul General of the US Consulate, Lahore.
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