"The United Arab Emirates Consulate will start its operation in Lahore soon as Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued no objection certificate for establishment of Consulate in the provincial metropolis".
The UAE Ambassador Hammad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al-Zaabi stated this while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said the Consulate will provide facilities to the business community. He said it is a giant leap towards expanding mutual trade and economic ties. He further revealed that meeting of the Pak-UAE joint committee will be held in February 2019 that will be the first meeting after 2012.
The UAE and Pakistan have agreed to sign a new agreement to further strengthen bilateral relations, he said. The Ambassador said that two recent visits of Prime Minister Imran Khan have opened new avenues for cooperation. He said that 15 top UAE companies visited Pakistan and had meetings with their Pakistani counterparts. The UAE investors are interested to invest in renewable energy, power, oil and gas sectors of Pakistan, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Almas Hyder said that Pakistan and UAE have close, diplomatic and cooperative relations. These ties are well reflected in sizeable trade volume and cooperation in various fields including defence sector.
"We hope that the recent visit of our Prime Minister to UAE to meet His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi would contribute towards strengthening ties between two countries", the LCCI President said and added that UAE and Pakistan are major economic and trading partners. Among the top importing and exporting countries for Pakistan, UAE comes at 2nd and 7th places respectively, he said.
Almas Hyder said that the balance of trade has always been in favour of UAE because major share of imports made from UAE consist of petroleum products and crude oils which stood at around 85% last year.
He said that during last three years, Pakistan's exports remained below one billion dollar which went as high as dollar 2.87 billion in 2012. The volume of exports to UAE in 2017 was just dollar 869 million. It is a matter of concern for us and we are keen to revive the same level.
He said that there is a consistent rise in imports from UAE to Pakistan. From 2015 on, the imports figures are going up year after year closing in at dollar 7.52 billion in 2017.
Pakistan's major items of exports to UAE are rice, meat, bed & kitchen linens, fresh fruits and vegetables etc. Similarly Pakistan imports crude oil, petroleum products, ferrous waste & scrap of iron & steel, polymers of ethylene and propylene, he said.
The LCCI chief said the workers' remittances play a substantial role in strengthening the balance of payment of Pakistan. At present, our country is in great need of additional remittances. He said that UAE comes at second place after Saudi Arabia with regards to receiving highest amount of foreign remittances.
He said the UAE has imposed new restrictions for seeking work visa therefore; special preference should be given to Pakistani workers so that we could export maximum manpower to the UAE apart from other professionals, like doctors, engineers and teachers.
Pakistan can also provide technically skilled workers formally trained in vocational institutes. Since Urdu language is commonly spoken all across UAE so there is least language barrier for our workers while working there, he added.
Almas Hyder said there is also a lot of scope for UAE to make investment in Pakistan.
"It is important that you can be very helpful in routing the flow of investment to Pakistan" he said. "Timely decisions taken by our respective governments and the representatives of private sectors will allow both countries to prosper all across the fields," he added.