Banking, customs upgrade to boost trade with Russia: adviser

LAHORE: Adviser to Prime Minister for Commerce and Investment Abdul Razzak Dawood said bilateral trade between Pakistan and Russia was lower than $1 billion, with potential to expand, but banking network and customs system needed improvement.

Improved infrastructure would expand bilateral trade between the two countries while Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia has opened avenues for improving Pakistan’s trade.

He was speaking to the media men after visiting the 1st edition of Engineering and Healthcare Show (EHCS 2022) organised by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) on Friday.

Earlier, in the morning, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar inaugurated the event at Lahore Expo Centre in which more than 350 foreign delegates were attending from Africa and other parts of the world. This was the first megatrade event organised by the government of Pakistan since after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Federal Commerce Secretary Sualeh Ahmed Faroqui, TDAP Chief Executive Arif Ahmed Khan, TDAP Secretary Ahsan Ali Mangi and other dignitaries and representatives from the business community also attended the event.

Dawood mentioned that the government was doing all efforts and making arrangements to export Pakistani products to Central Asian States (CARs) via Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and others countries of the region. He hoped that the expo would boost Pakistan’s exports and new buyers and markets would open with the government efforts.

He said that a video conference was scheduled between the Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan and the Russian commerce minister in the next week. “I believe that Pakistan should trade with all countries,” he said, adding that the country would witness record increase in exports by the end of this fiscal year.

Total export target is $38 billion, of this $31 billion is the target for goods, while $7 billion has been targeted for services exports.

Dawood believed the target would be achieved.

The EHCS 2022 is a sector specific trade event of the government of Pakistan where buyers from African and CAR countries are invited to visit and meet business partners to see the range of engineering and healthcare sector for their procurement needs. Around 300 foreign buyers/importers are visiting from over 30 countries to participate in the event, whereas around 170 exhibitors are participating in ECHS 2022.

Pakistan’s leading exporters are showcasing their range of products primarily related to pharmaceutical, surgical, agricultural machinery, construction, automotive/auto parts, sports goods, mobile devices, and chemicals etc.

The adviser also held meetings with delegations from participating countries.

TDAP also arranged sector specific B2B meetings of foreign buyers with local exhibitors. Further, Pakistani firm, Maxitech Pharmaceutical signed an MoU with M/s Health for all medicals, Sierra Leone.

On the sidelines, TDAP also conducted interactive seminars in collaboration with State Bank of Pakistan and Pakistan Single Window.

In addition to the foreign buyers, as part of the visiting delegation, TDAP has invited regulatory authorities, trade promotion organisations, chambers and associations from participating countries. Further to extract maximum benefit from this exhibition, TDAP has also planned industrial visits of the foreign buyers on the third day of the event.

The event would contribute immensely in enhancing the country’s image coupled with generating economic activity in the country in general, and within the engineering and healthcare export community in particular. The event would continue till February 27, 2022.