Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson has said Australia can play a pivotal role in shaping Pakistan's economy by providing technical support in livestock and dairy farming. Speaking at a dinner reception hosted in her honour by Chairman of Pakistan-Australia Business Forum (PABF) Pervez Haroon Madraswala at a hotel here, she said that there was immense trade and investment opportunity to be explored.
"Present trade volume between Pakistan and Australia is quite low and therefore there is huge potential to boost the bilateral trade between both countries. In order to achieve this goal the business communities must explore and identify each others market to offer their products in both countries," she urged.
She said there was a strong linkage between the two countries, however there was huge gap for trade and investment in many sectors. She said that both countries would like to see a positive growth in the business. She said the population of Karachi alone was equal to whole of Australia's inhabitants; therefore, the vast pool of human capital in Pakistan could be a major factor to drive the GDP of both countries by providing technical know-how and skills to local talented people. Amongst some of the fields where both countries could collaborate are agriculture, livestock, mining, dairy sector, and software. "Pakistani businessmen can take advantage of Australian expertise in the fields of Dairy, agriculture, boat building and mining to name a few to increase their productivity and profits," she said.
Margaret Adamson also said that Australia had made vast progress in irrigation and could certainly help Pakistan make irrigation more contemporary. She said that the two countries could collaborate in education and research. "Pakistan's reliance on remittances from overseas can be a potent factor given what the young people working in Australia will be remitting back home," she said adding that currently, there are 16,000 Pakistani students in Australia.
Chairman Pakistan Australia Business Forum, Pervez Haroon Madraswala said at the reception that Pakistani manufacturers could certainly benefit from Australian expertise in agriculture and dairy farming, and boat building. He said Australian imports were far cheaper than the European ones. He said Pakistan as a large market could be a lucrative market for Australia. Among some of the fields he mentioned were meat products and education in Australia.-PR