Ms. Beney J. Lee, Desk Officer for Pakistan in Washington, Department of State, U.S.A along with Mr. David Ryan Sequeira Economic Officer and Mr. Nasir Hamid Rao Economic Advisor, Embassy of US in Pakistan visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry to learn about the bottlenecks restricting trade potential between the two countries and discussed ways and means to further improve bilateral trade between Pakistan and USA.
She said US was encouraging its private sector to partner with Pakistani counterparts for investment and joint ventures. She said Pakistan and US have good potential to enhance cooperation in energy, agriculture and education sectors and stressed that both governments should facilitate their entrepreneurs to strengthen collaboration for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. She said US was ready to help Pakistan in innovative researches in the fields of education, agriculture and other sectors.
She said both countries should focus on developing sector-specific cooperation between their private sectors that would help in increasing two-way trade. She said US was interested in capacity building of Pakistani entrepreneurs through trainings. She assured that the trade barriers pointed out by ICCI would be brought into the notice of relevant US authorities for redress with the aim to improve bilateral trade.
Speaking at the occasion, Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry highlighted the various bottlenecks being faced by the Pakistani business community in doing trade with USA and urged that US should remove all trade barriers including strict visa conditions for promoting bilateral trade up to real potential.
He said Pakistan has suffered huge economic losses due to fighting war against terrorism and the best way for US to compensate it was giving it easy market access. He said many Chinese investors were taking increased interest to Pakistan which reflected its great economic potential and urged that US should also encourage its investors to visit Pakistan for exploring business opportunities. He said the visit of US investors to Pakistan will also send a positive signal to other foreign investors. He said Chambers of Commerce of both countries should sign MoUs of cooperation and both countries should strengthen cooperation between various sectors including marble, textiles, pharmaceutical, IT, leather and others to improve bilateral trade.
M. Shakeel Munir Senior Vice President and M. Ashfaq Hussain Chatha Vice President ICCI highlighted the potential of marble products for US market while Naeem Siddiqui said that Pakistan’s IT products have also good scope for US market. They stressed for regular interactions between the private sectors, especially SMEs of both countries. They said US should help Pakistan with technology transfer in energy, IT, agriculture and other sectors and encourage frequent exchange of trade delegations to tap all untapped areas of mutual collaboration.
There lies the problem as the so called friends of Pakistan had never allowed Pakistani goods to be sold in their markets and rather made Pakistan reliant on aid with strings attached and become a consumer rather than a trading partner.
For those people who have never been to Pakistan you have no idea the huge potential there is in Pakistan.
A very young and educated demography.
Abundance in minerals.
Quality manufacturing capability.
This region the Indus or Mughal Empire known as Pakistan today was the centre of textiles. Silks and fabrics coming out of China embroided in very high quality.
Pakistan has the potential to become an IT Services or Digital hub with lots of rich raw talent.
If call centres could be outsourced to India why not Pakistan where the English spoken accent is far more softer and people very entrepebeur al and naturally speaking rather than scripted responses from India.
Despite the negative and misinformation about Pakistan which was there for a reason during the US and Afghan war to reduce her influence in the region “clip” her wings to say in actual fact Pakistani culture and history is far richer than India ‘s and can resonate with the West very easily.
Pakistan has the ability and desire to be the next Turkey and connected to China and the Middle and greater Middle East and Asia Pacific with growing young vibrant educated population has great potential.
High time US and West begin treating Pakistan as an equal not a client state previously used to fight Communism and today WOT.
There is a huge market and potential for innovation in Pakistan connected to large markets in this region which are among the largest in the world today.
Invest in Pakistan and support Pakistan.
Remember this region from the dawn of man from Indus Valley to Mughal Empire has been rich vibrant and progressive and a testimony to strategic location rich culture and tenacious people.
High time this is recognised.
What Pakistan can not be no more and where the relationship has struggles is seen as a client state.
Mutual respect is required and no nation loved the US as much as Pakistan given our special relationship throughout the cold war. High time we return to this and making his region stable and mutually beneficial for each other.
Pakistan still has faith in USA and visa vi we should extend this to make this mutually beneficial and one where Pakistan has access to Western markets as a manufacturer supplier of goods but also services.
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