LAHORE: Strong B2B contacts and identification of new areas of trade can lift the trade between Pakistan and Belarus as present volume does not match the potential of the two sides.
This was stated by the Senior Vice President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and Vice President Haris Ateeq while talking to the Deputy Head of the Mission Ilya Kanaplious and Leanid Holub from Embassy Belarus at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The LCCI office-bearers emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation in such important areas for Belarus and Pakistan as industry, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.
They said that United Kingdom, Germany and Netherlands are top three exporting markets for Pakistan's products while Germany, Russia and United Kingdom are the biggest importing countries for Pakistan in whole Europe. In contrast to that the share of Belarus in total trade of Pakistan especially in exports is negligible.
"Despite having cordial relations, the trade volume between Pakistan and Belarus was merely around 34 million dollars in 2020. The trade balance is heavily skewed in favour of Belarus as our imports from Belarus are around 33 million dollars while our exports to Belarus are just 1.1 million dollars", the LCCI office-bearers added.
They said that Pakistan is mainly importing tractors, fertilizers, tyres and synthetic filament from Belarus while exporting surgical instruments and rice in a limited quantity.
There is tremendous potential for Pakistan to enhance its exports of Value Added Textiles, Surgical Instruments, Pharmaceutical Products, Sports Goods and Leather Products etc. to Belarus.
The LCCI office-bearers said that the Embassy of Belarus can play an important role in identifying new avenues for enhancing bilateral trade and economic cooperation between two countries.
They said that since the two countries have very limited knowledge about each other's economies, LCCI believes that exchange of Trade Delegations can be a good option. Once the circumstances further improve and foreign travelling gets back to normal, we should collaborate with each other for this purpose.
Earlier, the delegation members informed the LCCI office-bearers that the Embassy of Belarus is organizing an exhibition in Karachi in November. They invited the LCCI members to visit the event.
They said that Belarus is advance in Engineering and various other sectors and Pakistan should avail benefit. LCCI Executive Committee Members Ahmad Elahi, Usman Malik, Mardan Ali Zaidi, Naeem Hanif, Ateeq-ur-Rehman, Khalid Mahmood, Malik Riaz Iqbal, Usman Malik and Ali Afzal were also present on the occasion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021