The Korean Ambassador to Pakistan Choongjoo Choi said on Friday that South Korea to provide full support to Pakistan to overcome energy crisis that has crippled the entire trade and industry in Pakistan. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Byung Hoon Sung, Director, Korea Business Center (KOTRA) was also present.
Choi said that the Korean government was well aware of the challenges being faced by the Pakistan's economy and would extend every possible co-operation at the earliest. He expressed the optimism that the volume of trade between Pakistan and South Korea was bound to increase as both the governments were taking measures to get desired results.
He said that the unavailability of required trade-related information was the biggest hurdle in the way of South Korean investment in Pakistan. He admitted that South Korean investment in Pakistan was very little.
Choi while identifying a number of areas for mutual co-operation said that there was a need for expertise-sharing as both the countries have a lot to learn from each other. He said that there was a big potential in SME sector therefore Pakistani business community could avail opportunities in this particular area. He urged the LCCI to arrange a business delegation to South Korea so that Pakistani businessmen could have first-hand knowledge about opportunities there.
The President LCCI Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that Pakistan takes great pride in the fact that South Korea was an important trading partner and appreciated and acknowledged the economic growth and industrial development in South Korea in the last 25 years. He said that South Korea was reckoned among the 15 largest economies of the world having surplus balance of trade exported to the tune of $468 billion in 2010. It is indeed a role model for developing economies like Pakistan.
Pakistan and Korea were not new to each other and did well through joint ventures in various fields like telecommunications, transportation, infrastructure, electronics, chemical industry, automobiles industry and etc. He said that Pakistan has a huge potential for Korean companies particularly for foreign investment in sectors like dairy, livestock, information technology, petrochemicals and electronics. Moreover, in the outskirts of Lahore, the prices of per acre agriculture land were cheaper as compared to our regional countries like India, Bangladesh and etc. By transfer of know-how and technology, both Pakistan and Korea could benefit because in Pakistan, skilled and semi-skilled manpower was available in abundance.