Enhancing Trade Ties With Islamic Countries Especially Saudi Arabia Urged

Chief Executive, Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) Mian Kashif Ashfaq here on Monday termed Prime Minister Imran Khan's official tour to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia imperative for revival of economy. He stressed the need for enhancing bilateral economic ties and trade relations between brotherly Islamic countries in addition to gulf states.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Oct, 2018 ) :Chief Executive, Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) Mian Kashif Ashfaq here on Monday termed Prime Minister Imran Khan's official tour to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia imperative for revival of economy. He stressed the need for enhancing bilateral economic ties and trade relations between brotherly Islamic countries in addition to gulf states.

Chairing the PFC board of Directors meeting, he said the Council is organizing furniture fair at Lahore in which furniture manufacturers from all Islamic countries would be invited to boost the trade volumes among them," said a press release.

Furthermore, it is also decided at the meeting that a special high level PFC delegation will be dispatched to middle east countries, Malaysia, Indonesia including Philippine to explore new vistas of trade in furniture industry and invite furniture makers and investors to visit Pakistan and invest in Pakistani furniture sector to earn billions of rupees as there is huge scope and ample opportunities in this sector for investment.

He appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan for deciding to play active role for revival of the economy and started foreign tours to woo foreign investors and buyers and to boost the volume of the exports.

He said the Muslim countries had enormous resources and potential to succeed, but the task was to transform the potential into real asset.

Promotion of economic linkage within the Muslim communities by creating opportunities could help generate greater flow of capital from within and beyond the Islamic world. He further said that there was great need to promote integration amongst the Islamic Countries in the era of globalization and absence of unity among the OIC countries which is the biggest challenge in the present situation.

He said there is also a great cushion of expansion in the market share of food sector products already being exported. Pakistan can also easily cater to the rapidly growing sector of organic foods and furniture in Saudi Arabia.

Similar potentials exist in services sector be it financial services, insurance sector, facilities management, IT services, entertainment industry. He underscored that there should be regular exchange of meetings between the investors and businessmen of the both countries. It will open up new avenues of investment and will further boost the relations between the two countries, he added.

He said Saudi Arabia was our true friend and brotherly country while every Pakistani considered Saudi Arabia as his second home. Both countries were connected with each other through religious, cultural and economic linkages which provided fresh impetus to their relations, he added.

Mian Kashif emphasized that Pak-Saudi Arabia relations were of special importance and there was a great atmosphere of trust and love between the two countries which was an example for the world.

He underlined that the two countries were cooperating in various fields while continued efforts were required to further enhance ties in furniture sector. He further said frequent exchange of business delegations and enhanced business-to-business interactions are guaranteed to accelerate the commercial relations.

He said that liberalized business visa regime on both sides will greatly facilitate such interactions.

However, he said Saudi Arabia has increased the business visa fee to Rs74,000 per person for attending any business activity in the country. This has discouraged a large number of Pakistanis from participating in Saudi exhibitions. Not a single Pakistani company participated in the Saudi Health 2017 exhibition, he expressed.

Mian Kashif while winding up the meeting said Saudi vision 2030 was of great significance and it would play an important role in further strengthening the economy of Saudi Arabia. He pointed out that Pakistan was one of the best countries in terms of investment opportunities and Saudi furniture makers and investor could benefit from the investment opportunities in furniture sector, construction and agriculture.