Kyrgyz envoy visits LCCI

LAHORE: Kyrgyzstan offers market of over 180 million people to Pakistani merchandise and the Pakistani businessmen should come forward and avail this opportunity, a diplomat said on Saturday.

Speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan Erik Beishembiev said that his country greatly values relations with Pakistan and that is why it seeks further diversification and strengthening of these relations.

Beishembiev said that Kyrgyzstan is interested in the development of short transportation links through its territory between Central Asia and China and Pakistan with access to the Gwadar and Karachi ports, using railways and roads, which are being constructed in the framework of CPEC. Kyrgyzstan is the shortest road link to China and many central Asian countries, the envoy said.

LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh lamented low bilateral trade between the two countries, and said only pharmaceutical products are mainly exported from Pakistan, whereas trailers and semi-trailers are imported from Kyrgyzstan.