A high level Italian delegation, led by Italian state minister, will visit Lahore on December 7. It will include representatives of 80 Italian companies from textile, leather, footwear, infrastructure, information technology, renewable energy, agriculture, automotive sectors.
The delegation will also include six Italian business associations in its fold.
Italian Deputy Trade Commissioner AR Daudpota made the announcement while talking to Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Abdul Basit on Monday.
Italian Deputy Trade Commissioner said that the Italian delegation was visiting Pakistan to explore opportunities for trade and investment. Italy’s main industries are tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear and ceramics. Most raw materials needed by industry and more than 75 per cent of energy requirements are imported, he said and added that the joint ventures between the private sectors of the two countries could help enhance mutual trade volume.
LCCI President Abdul Basit said that Italy is an important trading partner of Pakistan in Europe which comes at 5th and 3rd places respectively among the top exporting and importing destinations for Pakistan in European Union. He said that the balance of trade favoured Pakistan and it was encouraging to see that volume of bilateral trade is being maintained over one billion dollar.
Pakistani businessmen wish to maintain this favourable trend and also enhance the volume of two way trade with the help and cooperation of individuals, he said.
“The worth of bilateral trade was $1.2 billion in 2014 which slightly decreased to $1.1 billion in 2015. The said fall in trade volume was due to slight dip in imports and exports during that period. The exports of Pakistan decreased from $767 million to $618 million and imports contracted from $470 million to 444 million”, Abdul Basit added and said that these figures do not reflect the actual potential of trade between Pakistan and Italy.
The LCCI president said that both the countries have big market size, so we will suggest that market surveys should be conducted to explore the potential areas of trade. He said that it was really good to see that Italian investors and businessmen are taking interest in fashion and marble sectors of Pakistan in particular. If Italy could help Pakistan get the latest technology required in these sectors then we can create win-win situation for both the countries, he said.
He said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry likes to develop a close liaison with the Italian Trade Commission office in Pakistan in order to exchange important information related to trade queries. He hoped that Italian Embassy plays active role in projecting Pakistan as a safe place for investment and trade.
