Wednesday, May 7, 2008, Rabi-ul-Sani 30, 1429    

Swiss Business Council to become important platform

Karachi—The Swiss Business Council (SBC) will become an important networking and business platform for all stakeholders of the bilateral trade ties. This was stated by the Consul General of Switzerland in karachi, Martin Bienz. He was speaking on the occasion of a reception he hosted here on Monday night to mark the launching of the SBC.
“ This new private sector body has been initiated by a very dedicated group of Swiss multinational companies operating in Pakistan”, he added. Martin was of the view that through this commitment, the SBC will become an important networking and business platform for all stakeholders of our bilateral business relations.
He said that the Swiss government fully supports this undertaking which will generate new synergies through private and public cooperation and partnership.
The Consul General further stated that the SBC will form an alliance with the Swiss-Asian Chamber of Commerce in Zurich- which is the country’s largest city as well as the economic and financial hub. He pointed out that the timings of the launch of the SBC is well chosen in the light of the encouraging bilateral trends of growing trade ties and investments.
Martin remarked that the formation of the SBC is a clear vote of confidence to ‘our Pakistani friends and partners and a signal that we strongly believe in the great potential of Pakistan’s economy’. He informed that the trade between Pakistan and Switzerland has reached an amount of 400 million Swiss Frances in 2007 and the newly released figures for the first quarter 2008 indicate double-digit rates in both directions.
The Council General pointed out that the balance is in favour of Switzerland although Pakistan has considerably increased exports to Switzerland in the past few years. He said that on the investment side, Switzerland has been for many years and continues to be the one of Pakistan’s top ten partners in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI).
Matrin was of the opinion that specific efforts are required to bring the volume of trade and investment between the two countries to the next higher level and the SBC can and will play a decisive role as driving force to achieve this ambitious yet realistic goal. The president of the SBC, Farhat Ali, also expressed his views on the occasion.—APP