LAHORE: Honorary Consul of Pakistan in Belgium Luc Meurrens has called for sector specific measures to take the two-way trade volume to the desired level.
He was talking to the LCCI Acting President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed, Vice President Zeshan Khalil and Executive Committee Members here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Fahim-ur-Rehman Sehgal, Nabila Intisar, Mudassar Masood Chaudhry, Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry and Mian Zahid Javed were also present on the occasion.
Luc Meurrens said that though the trade between Pakistan and Belgium is growing steadily over the years but still a lot of room is available for maximizing the mutual trade and economic ties. He also lauded the LCCI saying that the exchange of trade delegations and trade fairs are the most effective marketing tool in this fast changing global scenario.
The LCCI Acting President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed said that Pakistan and Belgium have good diplomatic relations and Belgium is an important trading partner of Pakistan in European Union. He said that among the top importing and exporting destinations of Pakistan in EU, Belgium comes at 3rd and 6th places respectively. He said that traditionally, the bilateral trade has been in favour of Pakistan. It is really great to see that the bilateral trade has first time crossed over a billion dollars.
Khawaja Khawar Rasheed said that in 2015, the level of bilateral trade was dollar 817 million which increased to dollar 1.22 billion in 2016. There were increasing trends noticed both in imports and exports during last two years which caused the bilateral trade to show healthy transformation.
“Pakistan’s exports to Belgium registered 10% increase in a year whereas the imports from Belgium to Pakistan went up by 154%. I think we need to maintain this trend while focusing more on increasing the exports to Belgium. You can certainly play key role in this connection. Pakistan is exporting home textiles, articles of apparel, rice and hosiery etc., to Belgium. The major imports made from Belgium are boats, pharmaceutical products, textiles machinery, articles of plastics and waste of iron & steel etc”, the LCCI Acting President added.
He said that there are good prospects for undertaking joint venture projects in Pakistan with the help of Belgian experience and technical knowhow in the fields of agro food processing, chemicals, paper & board, dairy and fertilizers etc.
