LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has celebrated “Australia Day” at a prestigious cake-cutting ceremony here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Friday. Participants of the ceremony including High Commissioner of Australia to Pakistan Ms. Margaret Adamson, the LCCI President Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President mjad Ali Jawa, Salman Basit, Ali Hassam Asghar, Tehmina Saeed Chaudhry and various others pledged to make mutual friendly and cordial relations more stronger.
Australian High Commissioner said that Australia and Pakistan are strategic partners and enjoying long-standing cordial relations that have built on strong business-to-business and people-to-people connections.
She said that Australia and Pakistan should actively explore new avenues to expand trade and investment as both countries have significant prospects to growth bilateral trade and investment.
She said that Pakistan could avail Australian expertise in various economic sectors. She also called for frequent exchange of business-related delegations so that both the sides could have first-hand knowledge of the available opportunities. She said that Pakistani goods are best of the best in the world and has a very huge potential in Australian market therefore Pakistani businessmen should focus on joint ventures with their Australian counterparts.
The LCCI President Abdul Basit said that Pakistan and Australia are taking all possible steps to combat extremism. Collaboration and assistance in fields of sports & education etc., and the joint efforts to develop business to business contacts are bound to bring positive results soon.
He said that last year in April, a businessmen delegation from Australia visited Lahore Chamber accompanied by the diplomats from Consulate General of Pakistan in Sydney, Australia. Afterwards, the representatives of Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Canberra, Australia came to Lahore Chamber to discuss matters of mutual concerns. He said that more such delegation would be beneficial for the both countries.
He informed the Australian High Commissioner that to reciprocate those visits, a businessmen delegation from Lahore Chamber went to Australia during February this year to attend Halal Expo 2017 in Sydney. He said that the LCCI also interacted with the representatives of public and private sectors and grateful to Australian High Commissioner for extending best cooperation to LCCI in this connection.
Abdul Basit said that the balance of trade has been in favour of Australia but it is a matter of concern for us that the gap between imports and exports is expanding year by year. There is an upward trend in bilateral trade but these trade figures do not match the actual potential of trade.
He said that the trade potential between two countries is more than dollar 2 billion for which both public and private sectors have to make joint efforts.
“From 2014 to 2015, the two way trade surged from dollar 504 million to dollar 714 million. That increase took place due to abrupt rise in imports from Australia to Pakistan which went up from dollar 337 million to dollar 538 million during that period. Pakistan exports showed some improvement but its magnitude was not sufficient enough. The volume of exports to Australia inched up from dollar 167 million to dollar 176 million. We need to find ways to enhance our exports to Australia which can also help in closing the gap between imports and exports”, the LCCI President added.
He said that Australia imports cotton, carpets, articles of apparel, other made-up of textiles, footwear, pharmaceuticals, articles of leather, ceramics, meat and tobacco etc., in sufficient quantities from other countries. Pakistan can export these commodities at fairly reasonable rates to Australia. He said that Australia has good technology and expertise in agriculture, livestock, dairy and mineral & mining sectors. If both countries expand cooperation in these sectors, then Pakistan can draw great benefits.
