Poland offers Pakistan facility in export oriented activities

By Our Correspondent
October 17, 2019

Islamabad : The bilateral trade between Pakistan and Poland stands at around $700 million on annual basis and there is a lot of potential to enhance cooperation in trade, oil and gas and areas of defence.

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“We offer Pakistan to consider Poland as hub of all export oriented activities for transportation of its goods especially textile and other products to other parts of Europe. We support Pakistan for GSP plus status and will continue so for next phase,” Ambassador of Republic of Poland Piotr A Opzlinski said while visiting Zaildar House Taxila on invitation of Syed Zaheer Shah Zaildar and Syed Ahsan Shah Zaildar on Tuesday.

The Ambassador also visited Taxila Museum and other historical sites of ancient Budha civilization. The PPP parliamentarian Palwasha Khan also accompanied the Ambassador during his visit of different historical places of Taxila city.

While talking to reporters after being served him traditional Pakistani lunch, the ambassador said that Polish companies could invest $200 to $300 million into oil and gas sector provided new concessions were offered to them.

He said he considered Pakistan just like his home because he had served here on different positions for ten years. Pakistan and Poland, he said, were cooperating in areas of oil and gas fields from last 30 years. “The bilateral trade stood at 538 million Euro or about $700 million and it is in favour of Pakistan as exports of textile, surgical and other products are getting their due shares”, he added. He mentioned that Poland people were learning cricket because a lot of Pakistani students were studying in different universities.

To another query about GSP plus status being enjoyed by export sector from EU, the Ambassador said that Pakistan needed no aid but trade and Poland being located at center of Europe could become hub for transportation of goods of Pakistani exports to many other parts of Europe”, he added.

“We are supporting Pakistan for GSP plus and will continue so for the next phase”, he said and added that there was great demand for textile, surgical and other goods of Pakistani origin in Poland.

He said that there were possibilities of new cooperation in areas of exchange of visitors. He said that there were lot of Pakistanis who were studying in Poland and more work needed to be done for enhancing cooperation for exchange of students in education sector. He said that he was not satisfied with the existing level of cooperation in education as there is lot more work to be done to expand mutual cooperation. He said the Polish climbers loved to areas of Karakorum and wanted to visit to do climbing there.

To another query about enhancing trade ties, he said that they were part of Europe but there were other areas of such avoidance of double taxation where the cooperation could be enhanced. When asked about defence cooperation, he refused to share details and contended only as saying that the defence cooperation would be definitely increased between the two countries. When asked about difficulties being faced to get visa, he said that technical framework needed to be upgraded but he encouraged contacting them if anyone found any genuine problem. The Ambassador said that there were traditional and cultural similarities between the two countries. Poland could offer machinery, coal and food processing facilities to Pakistan as these are areas of strength of their economy, he maintained. The Ambassador also planted a tree at Zaildar House on this occasion.

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