Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Senator Haji Ghulam Ali has asked all business councils of FPCCI to make their best use for promoting bilateral trade and investment with different countries. “Business councils are expected to play a revolutionary role for promoting bilateral trade and economic partnership,” FPCCI chief was speaking on occasion of nomination of Nadeem Khalid, Chief Executive of Herbion Pakistan as Chairman of the Pakistan Ukraine Business Council of FPCCI.
Khalid’s nomination is in pursuance of his election during 2011, a FPCCI statement indicated. Senator Ali advised the Pak-Ukraine Business Council to develop a strategy for promoting and increasing Pakistan’s trade with Ukraine. The potential areas for cooperation encompassed joint venture and investment opportunities and included the possibility of other trade promoting tools which would be considered for the framing of recommendations with proper demarcation of roles between the public and private sector, he said.
The exchange of trade delegations and managing single country exhibitions could be another area for managing the progress in the time to come. After the nomination as chairman, Nadeem Khalid said he would try to fulfill the responsibilities entrusted by FPCCI under the guidance of its president. He underlined there exists tremendous potential to enhance commercial and economic ties between Pakistan and Ukraine in various sectors requiring focused attention through identification of specific projects.
Nadeem said that the friendly relationships developed through exchange of delegates would create a benchmark for doing business in the large economy of Ukraine. He noted that Ukraine is contributing to the large scale manufacturing sector in it has aided in the rehabilitation of coke-oven batteries and has put the Pakistan Steel Mills in a self sustaining position. Present trade figures between both countries which are rather low currently would suggest that Pakistan can penetrate into the Ukrainian market which has annually imports products valued at roughly $50 billion.
He said major industries in Ukraine namely coal, electricity, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food processing are major products on Pakistan’s import bill. Thus, there can be a balance between meeting import requirements from Ukraine and efforts towards increasing exports to the country as presently trade volume stands at only $100 million.
WTO and Research & Development Cell of FPCCI Chairman Engineer MA Jabbar pledged full support to the Pakistan Ukraine Business Council by providing statistical and other research based inputs for making better presentations to help promote business between Pakistan and Ukraine.
