Islamabad
Commerce Secretary, Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera on Monday said that Pakistan wanted to double its trade with African region from $4 billion to $8 billion by tapping the huge potential existing in the region.
He said that the government was focusing to enhance production of goods in all priority sectors to exploit new potential markets and increase the country’s exports.
Talking to APP, he said that Pakistan-Africa trade was well below its true potential.
The both sides wanted to enter into long-term partnerships, which would be proved mutually beneficial, he added.
He stressed that there was a need to enhance Pakistan-Africa trade and develop banking and transportation channels.
Pakistan was on a path of economic growth and had attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from leading investors in the last year, he said.
He informed that President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta had also addressed Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference 2020 (PATDC-20) at Nairobi, Kenya.
The Secretary Commerce said that by choosing Kenya, it had been proved that Kenya was the gateway to Africa.
He said the Kenyan Ministry of Commerce and East African Association also presented business opportunities in East Africa at the PATDC-20.
Leading Pakistani companies and African companies held over 1000 B2B meetings on the sidelines of the conference.
He said that Pakistani exporters of Rice, Sports, Pharmaceutical, Fans also arranged the Business to business and government to government meeting during the conference.
He said that over all 2200 Business to business meeting was conducted between Pakistani and Africans business to enhance the trade cooperation between both the sides.
“The government is working on Strategic Trade Policy Framework for changing the trade strategies according to the new market trends for searching the new markets for Pakistani exports,” he added.
He said that the government had focuses on different potential regions including Africa, North America for increasing economic and business cooperation.
He said that “We want to promote the e-commerce for giving the new employment opportunities to the local youth.”
With regard to successes of the government, he informed that Finalization of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) –II with China, current exploration of African and Russian markets and last review of Generalized Schemes of References (GSP-Plus) with European Union were huge success of the government.—APP
