The economists want Pakistani manufacturers, exporters and businessmen to look towards the rising economies of Asia, as South Korea Thursday termed the existing volume of over $ 1.6 billion bilateral trade with Pakistan “far below (the) potential”.
“I am pleased to note that trade volume has increased by almost a billion dollars in the past decade and was more than $ 1.6 billion in 2012,” Korean Ambassador in Pakistan Choon-Joo Choi told the Korea-Pakistan Business Forum 2013 held here at a local hotel Thursday.
Jointly organized by the Pakistan-Korea Business Council of FPCCI and the Consulate of Korea, the well-attended event was themed as “Missing Trade Links in Our Emerging Markets”. The event marked the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two friendly countries.
The Korean envoy, who is famous for his focus on finding new avenues for augmenting the Pak-Korean trade, said trade was something that carried win-win results for the stakeholders. “But… even this figure ($1.6bn) is far from potential,” the ambassador told the gathering that saw many of Korean and local businessmen showing up.
This, he said, represented an excellent opportunity for the business community to tap into a lucrative market. About the new PML-N led government, Ambassador Choi said in past his country had an excellent working relationship with PM Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
“We are hopeful that this trend would continue,” he said recalling that Pakistan’s first M2 Motorway was built by a Korean firm, Daewoo. “Thanks to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s support,” to Daewoo that enable the latter make a project that today was one of Pakistan’s globally-acclaimed projects.
The Korean envoy sees ample opportunity for the two nations to further augment cooperation in the fields of trade and investment that, Dr Choong-Jae Cho of Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) earlier said, stood at $89 million as of March 2013.
Former Governor State Bank of Pakistan and Dean and Director of IBA Dr Ishrat Hussain called for the diversification of Pakistan’s products in terms of manufacturing and exports to keep pace with the rapidly moving structure of the world economy.
Calling upon Pakistan’s producers, exporters and businessmen to look towards the emerging “dream” economies of Asia like Korea and China, he said Asia and not the “declining” economies of US, Europe and even the deflation-hit Japan would be providing impetus to the global economy in future. “If we are able to capture even a portion of the $ 3 trillion global trade, the lifestyle of 190 million Pakistanis would change,” he viewed.
He also lamented the fact that Pakistan still was exporting commodities that it used to export in 1990s. Dr Ishrat proposed that instead of focusing low-value goods, Pakistan should go for high-tech-intensive exports. “The concept of vertical production has been replaced by a global supply chain,” the former SBP governor said. “Please wake up and pluck yourself into this supply chain.”
The economist also viewed that Korea, where most of the population was above 60, could consume a young population of Pakistan where 50 percent are under the age of 30. “Why can’t we educate and train our human resource to cater to the pressing need of Korea,” he said.
Another panelist, Tariq Ikram, former minister of state, said among other things the newly-elected PML-N led government would have to focus energy crises, security, management-related issues and exports. He dubbed Nawaz regime as “pro-industry”. Ikram said Pakistan and Korea needed to improve their visa issuing system besides dealing with the effective implementation of the bilateral trade agreements. Dr Muhammad Ather Elahi of IBA-Karachi in his presentation dwelt on means and ways through which the two countries could enhance the size of bilateral trade.
