Industrialists from Hattar to attend expo in Nepal

HARIPUR: A group of industrialists from Hattar Industrial Estate would attend an expo in Kathmandu, Nepal, in March next year.

Chairman of the Human Development Social & Islamic Committee of Haripur Chamber of Commerce and Industry HCCI, Dr Chan Mubarak Hazarvi, said that the purpose of attending the ‘Nepal Expo’ was aimed at exploring new opportunities of an expanded bilateral trade between the two countries.

He said that the two countries had decades-old trade ties and benefited from each other’s business potential occasionally; however, the volume of trade failed to reach the desired level for one or the other reasons.

Sharing the details of trade agreements and the current volume of bilateral trade, Dr Hazarvi said that Pakistan and Nepal had for the first time signed a trade agreement in October 1962 and later in July1982. “And the two documents resulted in the establishment of the Joint Business Council (JBC) in November 1996 between the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry,” he added.

However, he regretted that the volume of bilateral trade remained stuck to the lowest level of $4.8 million. “But during the last 23 years the exports of Pakistan to Nepal witnessed an annual increase of 0.45%, from $4.99million in 1998 to $5.54million in 2021, while Nepal’s exports of Pakistan during this period stood at $1.81 million,” he added.