‘Pakistan, Türkiye can boost trade volume to $15bn through preferential agreement’

KARACHI: A Turkish official on Friday said trade volume between Pakistan and Türkiye could increase to $15 billion through a preferential trade agreement that identified around 400 products having good trade potential for the two countries.

Pakistan and Türkiye signed the trade agreement in August 2022, aiming to boost trade in goods.

“Around 400 products having good trade potential have been identified in the agreement, which will be ratified within a month by the Turkish National Assembly,” informed commercial attaché of Türkiye Eyyup Yildirim while speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

The attaché added that Turkish companies had invested around $2 billion in different sectors of Pakistan. “However, this is not enough as there is room for more Turkish investment through joint ventures, particularly in the maritime, hospitality and other potential sectors.”

He apprised that Dawlance, which was acquired by a Turkish company Arcelik, had alone made an investment of more than $500 million, while another company opened up its textile accessories unit at a special economic zone in Pakistan.

“We need to further increase Turkish investment so I always encourage Turkish private sector to undertake joint investments in Pakistan.”

Yildirim further stated that the trade volume between the two countries had touched $1.1 billion last year, after a gap of ten years. “As both countries have competitive advantage, they can exchange potential products, which are of high quality and competitive price,” he urged.

The attaché was of the view that Türkiye and Pakistan needed to exchange a list of all such potential products, which could be imported from the earlier and exported from the latter.

Earlier, KCCI president Mohammed Tariq Yousuf, said Pakistan’s exports to Türkiye remained at $354.70 million in FY22, as compared to $268.43 million in FY21, reflecting a growth of 32.13 percent while the imports from Türkiye remained at $943.57 million in FY22, compared to $866.62 million in FY21, indicating a growth of 8.87 percent, he added.

Yousuf stressed the need to finalise the trade agreement between the two countries, saying it would substantially improve the trade volume.

“Until this agreement is finalised, Türkiye must allow unilateral market access to Pakistan under the GSP Plus program to deepen bilateral economic relations”, he said, suggesting to review protective textile duty structure of Türkiye, which restricts Pakistan’s textiles exports.

He was of the view that there was a potential for joint ventures and investment in the areas of Islamic finance, halal food, energy, low-cost housing, infrastructure development, telecommunications, and education.

“Although 17 Turkish firms are operating in Pakistan but Türkiye’s net foreign direct investment in Pakistan is not in line with the potential, which needs to be enhanced to a reasonable level.”

Yousuf invited Turkish companies to explore joint ventures and investments in special economic zones under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.

KCCI president also stressed establishing institutional linkages between Pakistani and Turkish universities to cement relations in the field of education, saying it would help in improving the quality of education and research of Pakistani universities.