Ambassador of Republic of Croatia Dr Drago Stambuk, inviting Pakistani workers to explore employment opportunities in Croatia, said that his country was demographically falling down and it needed human resource especially skilled and young people. The Croatian envoy, while speaking at a meeting during his visit to Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) here Wednesday, said that Pakistan holds very good human resource, well-educated English-speaking population along with devoted and intelligent businessmen.
I would like to see more Pakistanis coming to Croatia and working in various sectors of our country particularly the tourism industry, which receives millions of tourists every year and it sometimes becomes very difficult to cope so many visitors, he added.
He informed that Croatia, which is a member of Euro zone, holds fantastic geo-political position with big ports and railways network, hence, work was underway to make Croatia the hub for Central and South-Eastern Europe. Stressing on need of enhancing bilateral trade relation between Pakistan and Croatia, he said that Croatian Embassy was trying its best to improve trade exchange between the friendly countries and it was his duty to put the business people of both sides together.
I will be arranging political as well as economic consultations between the two countries so that bilateral trade could be improved, he added. While identifying delays in issuance of visas as a major bottleneck hindering trade, the envoy assured that efforts were being made to solve the issue. Speaking on the occasion, Honorary Consul General of Croatia in Karachi Mirza Imran Baig said that business potential for Pakistanis was incredible in Croatia which was a gateway to Europe bordering Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, besides sharing maritime border with Italy. The trade between Croatia and Pakistan has been steadily growing as Pakistan’s exports to Croatia have been improving at a pace of 7.71 percent annually while Croatia exports to Pakistan have also been rising by 4 percent, he noted.
He also hinted towards taking a trade delegation to Croatia in collaboration with Karachi Chamber and also initiate a Business Council so that all types of trade related issues between Croatia and Pakistan could be dealt under one umbrella. Earlier, President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh, stated that Pakistan was a big market of around $339 billion and has tremendous potential for strategic investment in sectors like energy, petroleum, textiles, SMEs, health, safety cyber security, artificial intelligence, startups and technology infrastructure including IT parks etc. Pakistan has abundant human resources with cheap labor costs, which offers a great opportunity for Croatian investors in the field of technical and skills development for its youth to boost productivity, he added.
The KCCI chief indicated that absence of Croatian visa issuing office here was creating obstacles in enhancement of trade relations. Therefore the Croatian Honorary Counsel General in Karachi should be allowed to issue visas for Pakistani businesses on KCCI’s recommendation, he suggested.
