KARACHI: Muhammad Suleman Chawla, Acting President FPCCI, has apprised that Christina McKelvie, Scotland Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development has expressed Scottish government’s commitment to promote bilateral trade, B2B linkages, investments and joint ventures and cultural exchanges with Pakistan.
Chawla highlighted that a high-profile delegation of FPCCI’s Pak–UK Business Council (PUKBC) is visiting Scotland in coordination with Scottish Chamber of Commerce (SCC) – which has planned various meetings and visits for the FPCCI delegation.
Christina McKelvie stressed that Scotland will be facilitating business communities of both the countries to enhance the volume of bilateral trade through full-fledged support to SCC and FPCCI.
Suleman Chawla added that FPCCI is looking forward to Scottish investment and cooperation in infrastructure development, renewable energy, water resource management, financial services, food & beverages, healthcare services and retailing ventures.
He explained that this visit is a follow-up to the Trade Cooperation Memorandum signed between SCC and FPCCI in September 2022 and the delegation is led by Imran Khalil Naseer, Chairman of FPCCI’s Pak-UK Business Council.
Chawla maintained that Pakistan can help Scotland reduce their cost of doing business (COBD) through providing skilled, abundant and cheap workforce, business process outsourcing (BPO) and facilitation with sourcing competitive products & services to make Scottish businesses more competitive vis-a-vis their European counterparts.
Dr Liz Cameron, Chief Executive of Scotland’s Chamber of Commerce, expressed her satisfaction that the Scottish government has extended support to Pakistani businessmen to achieve the objectives of MoUs between the two counterpart chambers.
Imran Khalil Naseer emphasized that Pakistan is a developing market with an enormous 64 percent young population; the country has successfully revived IMF programme, the CPEC projects have gained momentum, Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has been set up to enable investors, entrepreneurs and business groups to take up mega projects in IT & ITes, agriculture and food security, defense production, power and energy and tourism development. These developments have paved the way for enhanced cooperation in trade, industry and investments into Pakistan, he added.
FPCCI’s PUKBC also facilitated Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) with their visit of SCC and create necessary linkages with the Scotland’s business community and enable their Pakistani counterparts to enhance country’s exports to Scotland.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023