Expo Pakistan 2017: Commerce minister discusses trade hurdles with foreign delegates

KARACHI: Federal commerce minister on Friday - the second day of 10th Expo Pakistan - held meetings with foreign delegates and discussed bilateral trade hurdles and opportunities.

Commerce minister Pervaiz Malik met delegates from Vietnam, the Netherlands, Jordan, Argentina and Turkey, and spoke about how the problems could be addressed to increase trade with Pakistan.

Commerce secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha, and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) secretary Inamullah Khan were also present at the meetings, according to a statement issued by the TDAP.

Leading businessmen from the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) held meetings with the trade delegates from Russia, UK, Thailand, Tunisia, Australia, Vietnam, Netherlands, Jordan, Argentina, Italy, Kenya, Belgium, Japan, Turkey, Sweden, and Lithuania during the second day of the expo.

Joint Business Councils (JBCs) of FPCCI with UK and Morocco also met on the occasion; FPCCI signed MoU with its counterpart from Hong Kong and also expected to sign MoU with their Australian counterparts by the end of the day.

On the sidelines of the expo, TDAP has also arranged meetings of businessmen from Thailand and Bangladesh with the Sindh Board of Investment to explore investment opportunities in the province.

Further, a meeting of office bearers of Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce was also held during the expo. The delegation from Vietnam raised the issue of lack of direct payment between Pakistan and Vietnam, which was hurting the trade interests of the two countries.

It was said that the issue could be resolved by arranging a meeting between the banking authorities of the two countries. Besides, a number of trade deals were negotiated by M/s Towellers with buyers from UK, US and Europe.

This time, the trade delegation from Netherlands (led by the Pakistan Ambassador at The Hague) is the biggest in the history of Expo Pakistan. Besides, Qatari delegation showed particular interest in setting-up food chains in Pakistan.