‘Pakistan has become lucrative destination after CPEC’

FAISALABAD: Efforts have been initiated for revival of economic relations between Pakistan and Italy with special emphasis on frequent exchange of trade delegations, said Italian Embassy First Secretary Elena De Vito.

Addressing the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here on Tuesday, she said that an Italian delegation headed by Mrs Deniela Cannizzo of the Confederation of Italian Industries, Rome, was now visiting Faisalabad, which would be followed by another delegation for B-to-B meetings with local entrepreneurs.

Deniela Cannizzo said that confindustria was a private confederation of Italian industries and was making efforts to globalise their activities. She said that 6,000 companies were its members that were keen to enhance cooperation with Pakistani businessmen and in this connection, direct meetings with local entrepreneurs were necessary.

Bruno from the ICE Dubai office and a member of the Italian Association of Bank (IBA) said that the Italian government was making serious efforts to increase bilateral trade with Pakistan. During April last year, a Pakistani trade delegation had visited Italy and had very fruitful business-to-business meetings there, he added. He said that they were arranging a delegation from Italy that would visit Pakistan and had direct talks for marketing of their products, he said, adding that the Italian Development Committee (IDC) had opened its office in Karachi which would become operational from September.

He said: “We are making efforts to attract more Italian companies to come and invest in Pakistan which has become a lucrative destination after Chinese investment in the CPEC and its related projects.” He said that the Pakistani entrepreneurs could contact and get any type of information from the IDC. He said that both countries were already doing business but the volume of bilateral trade was just a peanut of their existing potential.

Earlier, in his welcome address, FCCI senior vice-president Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain said that the FCCI was the third largest chamber of the country. He said: “We have more than 5,000 members that represent all segments of economy, including textile, agriculture, foundry, food industry, dairy, flour and sugar etc.” He said that Faisalabad was known as a textile capital of Pakistan, which was contributing almost 50 per cent to the total national textile exports of the country. Regarding Pakistan-Italy bilateral trade, he said that currently the trade volume between the two countries was $1.06 billion. Pakistani exports to Italy were $618 million whereas Italian exports to Pakistan were $443 million, hence, the balance of trade was in favour of Pakistan, he added. He emphasised the need for technology transfer to Pakistan as Italy had special expertise in the fields of engineering, alternate energy, agri products, livestock, dairy, processed food, leather, textile, marble etc.

He said that no doubt Faisalabad was known as the textile capital but its textile sector was underutilised and was working with only 50 to 55 per cent of its installed capacity.

He said that Italian technology could help us to upgrade our textile sector and utilise its untapped capacity.