LAHORE: A high-powered sector specific and well tailored delegation of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry will visit Indonesia in February 2018.
It was revealed by the LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid while talking to the Ambassador of Indonesia to Pakistan Iwan Suyudhieamri here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The LCCI Vice President Zeshan Khalil, Amjad Ali Jawa, Shahid Nazir, Khamis Saeed Butt, Naeem Hanif, Dr. Shahid Raza, Khaliq Arshad, Aurangzeb Aslam, Muhammad Waseem, Ch. Zafar Iqbal, Kaleem Arshad, Adeeb Iqbal Sheikh and Muhammad Chaudhry were also present on the occasion.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that visit of the LCCI delegation is of utmost importance as it would explore new avenues for trade, investment and joint ventures that would help achieve the mutual target of sustainable economic development.
The Indonesian Ambassador assured his full cooperation to the LCCI president to make delegation a great success.
“Let’s do work together for mutual benefit. It would increase the mutual trade volume and help exploring huge untapped potential exists in the two countries”, the Indonesian Ambassador added. He said that there is a possible chance to collaborate in the various sectors.
The Ambassador also stressed the need for exchange of subject specialists and sector specific experts so that both the countries could be able to learn more and more from each other’s experiences. He said that sharing of experiences had no match when we talk of any specific product or trade with any country so Pakistan and Indonesia must share their experiences in the larger interests of the business communities in the two countries. Indonesian Ambassador also appreciated the LCCI efforts for strengthening liaison with other countries.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that Indonesia and Pakistan have old historical links and enjoy cordial relations. The people of both countries are close to each other and share special bondage of friendship and companionship.
He said that Indonesia is a major trading partner of Pakistan as among the top importing and exporting destinations of Pakistan, Indonesia comes at 3rd and 31st places respectively. Traditionally, the balance of trade has been in favour of Indonesia. Last year, the imports made from Indonesia to Pakistan were almost 16 times greater than our exports to Indonesia.
The LCCI President said that the bilateral trade figures fairly indicate the economic relations between two countries but these can be even greater if Pakistan is given more access to Indonesian market. Pakistan could not obtain much benefit from PTA signed between two countries and that is why our exports are not picking up.
He said that The volume of two-way trade was dollar 2.18 billion in 2015 which registered just 1.6% growth in a year. Although there was a slight increase in imports from Indonesia but Pakistan’s exports fell by nearly 9%. He intimated that last year, Indonesia’s total import of rice was dollar 532 million out of which Pakistan’s share was mere dollar 41 million. Similarly, in imports of paper and paperboard, the share of Pakistan was dollar 16 million out of dollar 258 million. I think that the exports of these items can be enhanced with least efforts.
“We need to make some arrangements to export items of light engineering, carpets, surgical instruments, fresh fruits and vegetables etc. at minimum duty to Indonesia so that some improvement could be brought in the present scenario”, the LCCI President added.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that there is also a lot of scope for Indonesia to make investment in Pakistan. Indonesia has a fairly advanced petro-chemical, rubber, plywood, telecommunication and tourism industry. Indonesia can make direct investment in these industries and can also enter into joint ventures with Pakistani counterparts. He proposed that these potential areas need to be studied and monitored by the commercial sections of our respective diplomatic missions for promoting trade and investment between two countries.
