Ambassador of Russia to Pakistan Alexey Yurivich Dedov Saturday invited the Pakistani businessmen to explore huge untapped Russian market where Pakistani merchandise can get a good place for being of good quality.
Talking to the LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Hyder, Vice President Nasir Saeed and Executive Committee Members here, he said that both countries should take sector-specific measures to enhance mutual trade that does not reflect existing potential.
The ambassador expressed the optimism that both Pakistan and Russian businessmen could enter into joint ventures to benefit each other in their respective businesses and could take to level of bilateral trade to new heights with a little sector specific effort.
Alexey Yurivich Dedov said that Russia has a lot to offer to Pakistani business community, while Pakistani businessmen could learn a lot from Russians for the technological upgradation of their industrial units.
On this occasion, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) SVP Almas Hyder said, Pakistanis were grateful to Russian Federation for helping Pakistan establish a mega steel mill at Karachi, which had played a crucial role in the development of the country.
“Today, this steel mill is the biggest source of steel products catering to the demand of the country and value addition for related products. But since then no major initiative has been taken by Russian Federation,” he added.
Almas Hyder said both the countries needed to warm up their relations for mutual benefit of people and play an overwhelming role in international arena on a sustainable basis.
Though bilateral trade between the two countries was increasing gradually but it was not satisfactory and there was a lot of scope to enhance mutual trade volume, he maintained.
He said, Russian Federation is a market of great importance for Pakistan with massive population together with neighboring countries. He said that Pakistan could export textile, garments, rice, leather, sports goods, surgical equipments and pharmaceutical to the Russian Market, while Russia can enhance export of power equipment, steel, urea, chemicals etc to Pakistan.
The SVP said that oil and gas sector in Pakistan offered great opportunities to Russia which had the requisite experience and technology in this field. Russia could evaluate possibilities of collaboration with Pakistan for mining of marble and granite as well.
While, Lahore Chamber’s VP Nasir Saeed said that private sector of Pakistan could definitely take the lead in exporting various types of consumer goods to Russia and in return Pakistan could supply all types of textile goods, leather & leather products, surgical goods, sports goods, agro-based products & food items, fresh fruits & vegetables, fish & fish preparations, carpets & rugs, pharmaceutical products etc.
He said that Russia could also help in introducing Pakistani products in the areas of its influence.
Nasir Saeed said, the profiles of Pakistani and Russian economies suggested brighter chances for joint ventures in sectors like food processing, oil, gas & mineral exploration, energy, engineering (heavy & light), transport equipments, automobiles, tractors, harvesters, machine tools, cement, fertilizers, industrial chemicals, plastic & rubber products, home appliances etc. where Russia was at advance stage of development.
