Lahore Chamber, TDAP Hold 'Look Africa Trade Forum'

Pakistan needs to ensure strong presence in the huge African market to take full advantage of its infinite potential, since African destination not only has precious reserves of oil and gold but also various other sectors with a lot to offer to Pakistan.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan needs to ensure strong presence in the huge African market to take full advantage of its infinite potential, since African destination not only has precious reserves of oil and gold but also various other sectors with a lot to offer to Pakistan.

Diplomats from Africa expressed these views at 'Look Africa Trade Forum', jointly organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Trade Development Authority Pakistan (TDAP) here at LCCI on Tuesday.

High Commissioner of Kenya Professor Julius Kibet Bitok, High Commissioner of Nigeria General (Retd) Ashimiyu Adebayo Olaniyi, Ambassador of Sudan Tageldin Elhadi Eltahir, Ambassador of Somali Khadija Mohammed Al-Makhzoumi and High Commissioner of Mauritius Rasid Ally Soobadar, and LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid, TDAP Director General Mian Riaz Ahmad, and business leaders including Sohail Lashari, Zafar Mahmood, Amjad Ali Jawa, LCCI Executive Committee Members and Federal Commerce Ministry's Joint Secretary Maria Qazi also spoke on the occasion.

The diplomats said that Pakistan's trade with Africa was minor that should be enhanced, suggesting that establishment of new commercial sections in Africa could help in this regard. They mentioned that Pakistani pharmaceutical, textile, agriculture, rice, wheat and cement had a lot of scope in the African market.

LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said that Pakistani products could easily make way to Africa which was world's second largest and second most populous continent. Trade analysis of last two years showed that overall trade of Pakistan with different African countries had been following a decreasing trend as both imports and exports were falling.

From 2015 to 2016, the value of overall trade decreased from US$3.23 billion to US$2.91 billion on account of 15.7 per cent fall in exports and 4.

7 per cent fall in imports from Africa. Pakistan needed to make concerted efforts to reverse this trend, he said, adding that it could be made possible with efforts done by private sector coupled with some assistance provided by the respective embassies of African group and relevant public organizations of Pakistan.

He added, "We have been emphasizing product and market diversification. Pakistani business community should be made aware of it that there are incalculable market opportunities available in Africa.

Look Africa Trade Forum can serve as a good source for networking." Malik Tahir Javaid was of the view that African countries could benefit greatly from Pakistan's experience and expertise in the fields of infrastructure development, agriculture, auto-parts, light engineering, pharmaceuticals, banking and information technology.

Pakistan's education sector, particularly professional institutes could provide excellent opportunities and avenues to African students to learn modern sciences and arts. He said the specific role of embassies could be ignored at all in this connection.

With the help of influence and unique importance of embassies, things could be turned towards a certain direction for ensuring mutual benefits, he maintained. Similarly, he said, when China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would get fully functional, it would also cut down transit time and transportation charges to send exports via sea route to Africa.

While, TDAP Director General Mian Riaz Ahmad said that government was working on a policy to address trade related issues including visa facilitation, of the exporters. He mentioned that TDAP was also focused on exploring non-traditional markets, asserting that Look Africa Trade Forum' would prove to be instrumental in expediting the mutual trade relations between Pakistan and African countries.