LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) and Pakistan mission in Netherlands would work hand-in-hand to expedite two-way trade.
This was decided at a meeting between the Ambassador-designate to the Netherlands Iffat Imran Gardezi and LCCI Vice President Nasir Saeed here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Both sides also agreed to work on exchanging sector-specific potential business delegations.
Nasir Saeed said that Netherlands is located at North-West of Europe and shares borders with Germany and Belgium. He said that both Netherlands and Pakistan have good diplomatic relations and it is an encouraging sign that two way trade is maintaining a level of billion dollars. From 2014 to 2015, the total trade inched up from dollar 1.01 billion to dollar 1.03 billion.
He said that Pakistan’s exports to Netherlands were to the tune of dollar 685 million in 2014 which decreased to dollar 667 million in 2015. Similarly in the same period, Pakistan’s imports from Netherlands slightly enhanced from dollar 325 million to dollar 361 million. He said that businessmen of Pakistan would like to develop good trade and economic relations with businessmen from Netherlands that will be possible if Pakistani mission in Netherlands play a helping role.
The LCCI Vice President said that Market Intelligence Reports are serving as a good tool to know about the potential areas where Pakistan can try to take some share. He said that Pakistani mission in Netherlands can market Pakistan as a beneficial place for Dutch investors who can joint venture with their Pakistani counterparts.
“It has been observed that trade diplomacy has done wonders in bringing two countries closer to each other. Pakistani Mission should make use of all the options available to you to generate as many business opportunities for Pakistan as possible. We will appreciate to receive any business inquiry through your reference”, Nasir Saeed concluded.
Pakistan Ambassador designate to Netherlands Iffat Imran Gardezi said that the fact remains that Netherlands can open up doors of neighbouring countries to Pakistani merchandise. She stressed the need for exchange of trade delegation and their participation in each other’s exhibition.
“I will ensure timely dissemination of trade related information and will try level best to send more and more businessmen of Netherlands to Pakistan to pave way for joint ventures between the private sectors of the two countries”, Iffat Imran Gardezi said and added that Pakistani businessmen would have to adopt aggressive strategy to enter into the market of Netherlands because they are not only quality conscious but very selective and careful while making deals with other countries.
