Australians are keen to invest in special economic zones being constructed under CPEC in Pakistan, said Ms. Margaret Adamson High Commissioner of Australia. She was addressing a delegation of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) that met her here.
She said that Pakistan and Australia are already enjoying good relations but there is huge opportunities being brewed up under CPEC. She said that Australia can help Pakistan to develop its live stock and dairy sector in addition to providing training to its human capital resource particularly in the fields of agriculture, education and hospitality. She said that Pakistan is a good market for the live stock which is still underutilized. She also stressed the need to further expand bilateral relations in education and agricultural sector for the benefit of the two countries.
Responding to a question, about waste water treatment, she said that Australia has expertise in this specific field and Pakistan could avail from it's expertise to resolve its environmental issues in addition to using treated water for irrigation purposes.
Earlier, President FCCI Shabbir Hussain Chawla told that Pakistan's exports to Australia were US$ 247 million during the financial year 2016-17, whereas the imports were US$ 419 million. Hence the balance of trade is in favor of Australia.
He said that the Industrial Phase of CPEC is about to materialize, which will provide new opportunities to the whole world for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Pakistan. Hence, "One Belt - One Road" will be a breakthrough in regional trade whereas Australian companies could also take their share. The industrial zones will also provide excellent opportunities to invest in Pakistan, he added.
He said that there are vast prospects of expansion of bilateral trade including Joint Ventures with Australia in textiles, agro-based industry, processed food, livestock, information technology products and services, clean energy technologies including clean coal, wind, medical technologies and infrastructure development. He said that Chamber to chamber business links also needed to be established while exchange of business delegations and single country exhibitions could also be arranged on reciprocal basis in both the countries.
The meeting was also attended by senior vice president sheikh Farooq Yousaf, vice president Usman Rauf, Engineer Rizwan Ashraf, Muzammil Sultan, Miss Qurratul Ain and Miss Tehniat Umar in addition to Ms. Nicole Guihot First Secretary and Imran Saeed Regional Business Development Manager of Australian embassy.