Turkey would open its consulate in Lahore very soon to facilitate Pakistan's businessmen and Lahore to Istanbul direct flight would begin from August 15, on daily basis. This was revealed during a meeting held between the 12-member Turkish delegation and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Ijaz A Mumtaz here on Friday. CEO Pakistan Turkey Business Association Sadi Yildirir and Head of Turkish delegation Tevfik Ayhan also spoke on the occasion.
CEO Pakistan Turkey Business Association Sadi Yildirir informed the participants that another Turkish delegation will visit Pakistan in the third week of August while we are also planning a single country exhibition in collaboration with LCCI. He said that Turkish businessmen are keen to initiate joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts in the fields of printing, security systems, building materials, construction services and textiles etc.
Pakistan businessmen should come forward and avail the opportunity to the maximum, he asserted. He said that both countries could have first-hand knowledge of the trade and investment opportunities through exchange of trade delegation on regular basis. Turkey and Pakistan have marvellous untapped business potential that needs to be realised by maximising the involvement of private sectors of the two countries, he added.
LCCI chief threw light on the economic scenario and trade and investment opportunities available in Pakistan and also gave various proposals to enhance two-way trade. He hoped that the economic relation between the two countries would strengthen further to create a win-win situation for Pakistan and Turkey. "We together need to make efforts to reverse the present trend in bilateral trade. Pakistan's exports are constantly dropping since 2011 when it was US 756 million dollars.
In 2013, Pakistan exported to the tune of US 407 million dollars to Turkey but last year the value of total exports further dropped to US 391 million dollars. So far as imports from Turkey to Pakistan are concerned, these have been ranging between US 150 million dollars to US 190 million dollars. Considering the size of both the economies, these trade figures seem quite dismal.
We must find ways to take the bilateral trade to at least US one billion dollars in coming three to four years," LCCI president said. He further said that textile sector has traditionally been the biggest sector of the economy. Studies and surveys have confirmed that its contribution in total exports are almost 60 percent and it engaged almost 38 percent of manufacturing labour force to acquire more than 46 percent share in overall manufacturing.
He said that in the context of having won the GSP Plus status, the need of technology improvement and capacity building in textile sector of Pakistan is necessary. "We have been offered a golden chance to further increase the textile exports. It does attract foreign investment and no other country can become better partner with Pakistan than Turkey. So any initiative from Turkish business community related to textiles would be welcomed," he mentioned.
LCCI president said that some analysts presumed that the trade volume between Turkey and Pakistan can be increased as high as US two billion dollars with some joint efforts made by public and private sectors of both the countries. He also called for B2B meetings on regular basis in order to strengthen business ties.