KARACHI: Bilateral trade with Turkiye has surpassed a psychological mark of $1 billion after almost a decade, FPCCI chief Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said on Saturday in a multi-sector B2B networking session organised for a Turkish trade delegation.
“It is a milestone and we can only envisage Pakistani exports to Turkiye growing steadily from here onwards,” Sheikh added.
The business-to-business (B2B) event for the Turkish delegation attracted top traders from all sectors of both the countries and around 350 traders took part in the meetings, encompassing diverse industries.
Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh informed that the bilateral trade with Turkiye had reached $1.2 billion in the last 11 months.
Exploration of joint ventures, transfer of knowledge and technology, assessing the trade potential in non-conventional product segments, and vistas that would be opened after the Turkish parliament passes the Trade in Goods Agreement (TGA) with Pakistan were discussed in the meetings.
Addressing an official dinner in the honor of Turkish delegation hosted by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), the apex body of Pakistan, Suleman Chawla, its senior vice president, said, “Pakistan and Turkiye have never been positioned for more robust, diverse and large-scale bilateral trade growth as they are now due to Pakistan’s accession into TIR convention for land-based cargoes.”
“It is a game-changer and we can turn it into a transformational milestone in the history of bilateral economic cooperation for peace and prosperity, through creating complementarities in the two economies, shared interdependencies, and destinies,” he added.
FPCCI’s Pakistan-Turkiye joint business council chairman apprised the audiences that FPCCI was closely working for B2B and chamber-to-chamber cooperation. “FPCCI is striving to benefit from Turkiye’s technological advancements in industrial production, quality standards as good as any other European countries, entrepreneurial zeal and exportable goods.”
He added that the visit of the aforementioned delegation of Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) and Eastern Black Sea Exporters Association (DKiB), which are the top bodies of Turkish traders, would result in enhanced bilateral trade and joint ventures.
Ahmet Hamdi Gurdogan, who is head of the Turkish delegation, supervisory board member of Türkiye exporters assembly, and vice president of Eastern Black Sea Exporters Association, said the delegation was comprised of 45 members and they were looking for their local partners for industrial, trade, and commercial cooperation.
He also apprised that Turkiye wanted to cement trade relations with Pakistan on the lines of Turkiye-Iran trade relations, making full use of geo economic advantages, transit trade, and capitalising on land-based regional connectivities.
Cemal Sangu, consul general of Turkiye, highlighted that Pakistan has a population of 220 million and Turkey has a population 85 million and those 305 million plus people and consumers substantiate a bilateral trade volume of at least $5 billion.
The milestone could be achieved in short-term and should not take more than 2 to 3 years to achieve, and the new TGA should enable to extent the bilateral trade to $15 billion in 5 to 10 years, he said.