A delegation comprising Yury M Kozlov, Russian Federation trade representative in Pakistan, and Dr Shahid Hasan, head Russia Chair from Golden Ring Economic Forum, visited SMEDA head office on Thursday.
The visit was aimed to discuss bilateral trade relations, future possibilities of linkages development and trade promotion.
Haroon Ahmad Khan, General Manager Business and Sector Development Services and Dr Naeem Rauf, GM-Central Support, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) received the Russian envoys along with Sheharyar Tahir, head External Relations Department and Nadia Jahangir Seth, head Policy and Planning Division of SMEDA.
The officials of SMEDA identified previous working with Russia and proposed development of direct linkages with SMEs and business organisations of Russia.
SMEDA also proposed to get grass root level access for entrepreneurs from both sides through business-to-business meeting with Russian SMEs and bilateral trade delegation visits.
The SMEDA’s proposals were appreciated by Yury. He said there was a need for development of a joint information sharing platform.
He also conveyed that Russian investments were at a moderate level right now, however, there was a lot of interest from their side to invest in Pakistan.
The SMEDA was identified as a potential partner for information sharing, hand-holding of SMEs for visits, joint ventures, investment programmes and SME development programmes.
The SMEDA would also act as an intermediary in facilitating businesses from both sides at national and international forums.
The discourse ended with the decision to work together, keep in contact and hold multiple meetings in future with SMEDA to develop bilateral trade relation.
Yury added he will discuss all possible business and trade propositions with Russian economic minister in future and will discuss future investment plans with SMEDA.
