Canadian envoy sees investment opportunities in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Perry John Calderwood, High Commissioner of Canada, on Tuesday said that Pakistan is taking major steps for ease of doing business, which makes its market very lucrative for Canadian businesses and investors. 

“Canada has already made significant investment in Solar Energy Projects in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and there has been a substantial improvement in the security situation,” Calderwood told Mohammad Pervaiz Malik, the federal minister for commerce during a meeting at his office.  

“The foundation of Pakistan-Canada trade relations has always been solid and now a sustained effort is needed to build on that foundation and increase the bilateral trade.”  Calderwood also expressed need to bring the Pakistani and Canadian businesses together so that they get understanding of businesses in both countries and explore new investment opportunities. 

Welcoming the Canadian high commissioner, the commerce minister shared his intention to visit Canada soon to discuss ways and means to bolster the already cordial trade relations between the two countries. 

“Although trade between Pakistan and Canada stood at US $0.91 billion during the FY 2016-17, there is a tremendous potential between the two countries to increase the bilateral trade by many fold,” Malik observed.

He also said that Canada-Pakistan Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment was working on exploring ways to promote bilateral trade. “The Canadian side should come up with their recommendations on proposal to conduct a joint study for promotion of bilateral trade,” the minister said.

He informed Calderwood that the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had agreed to adopt mutually agreed scientific solution to the
problem of fumigation of Canadian exports to Pakistan to ensure food safety standards. 

“With the support of CFIA the DPP has completed technical and legal evaluation of the information provided by CFIA and now await invitation from CFIA to DPP experts for on-the-spot inspection of integrated measures employed in Canada to ascertain export of quarantine free cargo to Pakistan,” Malik added. 

Malik also thanked Calderwood for the letter of facilitation and invitation to visit Canada, extended by Francois-Philippe Champagne, his Canadian counterpart.

Later, Erik Beishembiev, Kyrgyz Ambassador to Pakistan, called on the commerce minister Malik and asked him for the support of Pakistan in the activation of Trade and Economic Council between the chambers of the two countries and providing training to Kyrgyz officers on GSP Plus. Malik assured the Kyrgyz envoy of full support and facilitation and promised to speed up the work on activation of the council.