KARACHI: Ambassador designate to Ukraine Major General (R) Ather Abbas has expressed his keenness to make efforts for enhancing trade and investment ties between Pakistan and Ukraine by particularly focusing on connecting the Pakistani traders and industrialists with their Ukrainian counterparts.
Exchanging views during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), he said that during his stay in Ukraine as Pakistan’s Ambassador, he will try his best to explore trade and investment opportunities and will strive hard to proactively connect the business and industrial communities of the two countries.
President KCCI Younus Muhammad Bashir, Senior Vice President KCCI Zia Ahmed Khan, Vice President KCCI Muhammad Naeem Sharif, Former SVP KCCI Shamim Ahmed Firpo and KCCI Managing Committee members were present at the meeting.
Ather Abbas said, “It will be my aim to effectively connect traders, businessmen and industrialists of Karachi with Ukraine and KCCI members can feel free to get in touch with me anytime without any hesitation and I will always be there to facilitate them.”
The Ambassador also expressed his resolve to make Pakistan’s Embassy in Ukraine a vibrant platform which can be considered as an extension of KCCI where businessmen and industrialists of Karachi are fully facilitated.
Earlier President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Younus Muhammad Bashir, in his welcome remarks, informed the Ambassador about the overall membership strength of more than 21,000 direct members which makes it the largest chamber of Pakistan, representing all the segments of economy from small traders to leading industrialists.
Referring to Pakistan-Ukraine trade ties, President KCCI pointed out that during fiscal year 2015, trade volume between the two countries stood at around $275 million, of which goods worth around $56 million were exported to Ukraine and its imports from Ukraine stood at $219 million. Although the trade volume was showing rising trend as compared to 2014 but there was a need to further enhance trade between the two countries, he opined.
He was of the view that Ukraine, with its mining expertise, power generation, avionics and aerodynamics, can be a negotiating hub for transfer of technology to Pakistan. One of the biggest grain producers, Ukraine can also transfer its agro-science knowledge for increasing crop yields, besides participating in Public-Private Partnership projects in Sindh and in other provinces for construction of grain silos.
Pakistan can seek Ukraine’s technical expertise in rehabilitating its old power stations to overcome the current power crisis. Furthermore, the country can also help in developing coal-based power generation, he added.
He further advised the Ambassador to make efforts for organizing visits of trade delegations between the two countries which would help in furthering the existing trade and investment ties between the two countries. Pakistani delegations comprising business and industrialists should be facilitated by the Embassy during their visit to Ukraine. They should be provided opportunities to highlight the ground realities pertaining to improved security situation of Karachi which would surely result in attracting Ukrainian investment in Karachi as it offers abundant and very lucrative opportunities to foreign investors, he added.
