Britain eyeing ‘£10bn bilateral trade’ with Pakistan

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom wants to increase bilateral trade with Pakistan from the existing £3 billion to £10 billion to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for both countries, UK Deputy High Commissioner Mike Nithavrianakis has said.

Nithavrianakis, who is the Deputy High Commissioner of UK in Karachi and Trade Director for Pakistan, made the remarks while addressing the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said improving bilateral trade and economic relations between the UK and Pakistan would bring progress and prosperity for both countries. About 5,000 companies in the UK are doing business in the UAE, he added, but only 150 companies are in Pakistan despite the fact that Pakistan is a huge market of over 200 million people.

He emphasised that Pakistan should focus on addressing the issues of red-tapism and other bottlenecks along with ensuring a predictable and growth-oriented tax regime to attract more investors from the UK and other countries.

Nithavrianakis said the UK was focusing on four areas for close cooperation with Pakistan — healthcare, education, green energy and infrastructure. He said the UK could also cooperate with Pakistan in agriculture, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and other sectors to make its economy more competitive.

He said the UK would try to provide preferential access to Pakistani products in its market that would further improve its exports. Talking about the export of fruits and vegetables to the UK, Nithavrianakis said Pakistani exporters should work on meeting British standards to achieve better penetration in its food market.

He further recommended that Pakistani companies should focus on better marketing their products as insufficient focus in this area was keeping them back from promoting exports to their real potential.

He said the UK has issued advisories to its citizens to encourage them to visit Pakistan and assured the ICCI that he would cooperate with ICCI delegation to visit UK and in connecting them with the right partners there.

Speaking on the occasion, ICCI President Yasir Ilyas Khan said there is great potential for promoting bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and UK for which better connectivity between the private sectors of both countries is needed.

He said Pakistan is expanding its industrial base through the development of new special economic zones and added that British companies should explore joint ventures and investment in these facilities.

He was of the view that the close cooperation of UK companies with their Pakistani counterparts would help in producing value-added products and improving the country’s exports. He said: “We are not seeing our top agricultural products like mangoes, apples, oranges, bananas etc on the shelves of main supermarkets of the UK.”

He said those Pakistan companies that are providing A-Grade products should be connected with the companies of the UK to enhance their exports. Khan identified agriculture, industry, IT, mining and tourism as potential areas of cooperation between Pakistan and the UK.

He said the ICCI would ensure to connect the British High Commission with PASHA to shortlist at least 200 Pakistani companies that could provide software products and services to the UK. He said ICCI would also try to connect the local businesses with UK companies to bring their franchises to Pakistan.

He said many UK companies in Pakistan were doing better business as compared to some other countries and more should come to capitalise on the emerging business opportunities in Pakistani market.

He said ICCI would consider taking a business delegation to the UK and British High Commission should facilitate in making its visit successful. Fatma Azim, ICCI’s senior vice president, Abdul Rehman Khan vice president, Omais Khattack, Shakeel Munir, Khalid Chaudhry and others also spoke at the occasion and urged the UK to streamline its visa process for the Pakistani business community that would help in developing strong business linkages between the two countries.