Sri Lankan High Commissioner Dr Wijeratne Bandara Dorakumbure has said Pakistan and his country have signed free trade agreement (FTA) to promote their two-way trade. He was talking to Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Muhammad Ali Mian in a meeting here on Wednesday.
Which was also attended by LCCI Senior Vice-President Mian Muzaffar Ali, Vice-President Shafqat Saeed Piracha, Sri Lankan Consul General Sidath Kumar. The meeting of the view that both Pakistan and Sri Lanka were potential investment locations for each other's exporters, as Pakistan was the gateway to resource-rich Central Asian States, while Sri Lanka enjoyed duty-free access to huge European and Indian markets.
The Sri Lankan High Commissioner said that under the generalised system of preference (GSP), Sri Lanka had a free access to huge European market and under the regional pact it enjoyed the same facility with India that could be availed of by Pakistani exporters for re-export to these markets.
He said Sri Lanka had secured duty-free access for 7,200 products to the European Union market under the EU's GSP plus scheme. The main product categories, which have vast potentials in Sri Lanka under the GSP plus scheme included apparel and textiles, clothing accessories, seafoods, activated carbon, artificial flowers, foliage plants, rubber-based products tableware and bicycles. He said this was an ideal opportunity for Pakistani manufacturers, who could do 25 percent value-addition in Sri Lanka.
The High Commissioner, who spent well over two hours at the LCCI, said that Pakistani businessmen could also explore diverse opportunities available for them in Sri Lanka to manufacture products for exports to India under the Indo-Lanka free trade agreement.
He said that electrical items, textile and garments, light engineering, mining, ceramics and gems and jewellery had huge investment opportunities for Pakistani businessmen. LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian said the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry was making all out efforts to increase the volume of two-way trade between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
However, there was a need that the chambers of commerce in the two countries should come forward to create a win-win situation for both the sides, he added. He said that people-to-people contact, tourism links, exchange of business delegations, direct air link between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and establishment of display centres in each other's countries could enhance the bilateral trade.
Mian said there was a lot of scope for Sri Lankan industrialists for collaboration in various sectors such as rubber and rubber products, processing of fish, tea, tobacco and other agricultural commodities, cement, petroleum refining, gems and jewellery, education, human resource development etc.
He told the Sri Lankan High Commissioner that Pakistan was strategically located and was a gateway to the markets of Central Asian Republics (CAR), China and Afghanistan. It would become the energy and trade hub for the regional countries with the construction of Gwadar deep seaport.