Tariq Sayeed, Chairman of the Pakistan Iran Business Council of FPCCI and former President of FPCCI and founder and former President of SAARC CCI has stressed the need for exchange in trade delegations and opening new land routes in Iran in order to increase the level of formal trade between the two countries. He stated this while welcoming Mehdi Sobhani, the Consul General of Iran in Karachi, during his visit to the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Head Office.
Tariq Sayeed appreciated the recent progress on the Pak-Iran pipeline project and called for its early completion in order to address the energy crisis facing Pakistan. He said that he was pleased to note that the Government of Pakistan was not backing down on this issue in spite of international pressure. He reiterated that Pakistan was a sovereign state, and nobody could dictate us on issues of national interest. He said that Pakistan was currently facing an acute shortage of gas, and the pipeline project would help address this shortage to a great extent. He also appreciated the role of the Iranian Government in financing the project.
Tariq Sayeed spoke about the need to curb smuggling along the Pak-Iran border, ensuring better access for Pakistan’s competitive items such as rice and citrus fruits, and the duty structure in Iran for textile products. He also expressed FPCCI’s desire to organize a single country exhibition for Pakistani products in Iran, which would allow Pakistan’s exports to gain more visibility in the neighboring country. Appreciating the efforts of Mr. Sobhani’s predecessor in Karachi to increase Pak-Iran trade, he hoped that FPCCI and the Iranian Consulate would continue to have as strong a working relationship in the future as had been witnessed in the past.
Mehdi Sobhani said that the Iran-Pak pipeline would meet one third of Pakistan’s energy needs. He said that Iran was importing 1 million tons of rice from around the world every year, while Pakistani rice was already highly appreciated in Iran. Pakistan also had very good quality textiles, which Iran could use. Iran could provide requisite technology to Pakistan in meat and agri-processing. He announced the commencement of a direct flight between Karachi and Mashhad. He pledged his round-the-clock assistance in resolving visa issues for business travelers from Pakistan.
There are areas in which iranians are strong and others where they are weak. The pistachios and nuts are iran's strength. The meat processing is a copy of the west and extremely unhealthy. In the Iranian restaurants, they sell saline injected chicken covered with cheese which is a HEART ATTACK material. I prefer, Iranian natural products like the nuts and organically grown produce to be imported to pakistan. In addition, we should import their textbooks and translate them into a bilingual Urdu-Farsi-Arabic electronic format. These are the areas of fruitful cooperation.
There are areas in which iranians are strong and others where they are weak. The pistachios and nuts are iran's strength. The meat processing is a copy of the west and extremely unhealthy. In the Iranian restaurants, they sell saline injected chicken covered with cheese which is a HEART ATTACK material. I prefer, Iranian natural products like the nuts and organically grown produce to be imported to pakistan. In addition, we should import their textbooks and translate them into a TRilingual Urdu-Farsi-Arabic electronic format. These are the areas of fruitful cooperation.
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