The statements such as Pakistan has attractive investment opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs or it is an emerging economic power in South Asia have lost their worth and values when it comes to the litmus test of the time and real economic variables. The country is facing severe financial crisis as rupee has been devaluated, exports are experiencing free fall and foreign exchange reserves are depleting day by day. In this situation, a delegation of businessmen from France expressed promising views about Pakistan’s economy during its visit to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The French businessmen put emphasis on close relations with Pakistan and took keen interest in strengthening economic cooperation with the local business community. There is no doubt in the notion that Pakistan has vast untapped natural and human resources which can be utilized not only to develop the economy of the country, but also to help other countries in the fields of shared concerns. The modern technologies like Internet, mobile phones and video conferences have ended distances between countries. The modern technological gadgets can bused to develop deep and close linkages between business communities and networks of various organizations can help get benefits from each other’s experiences.
Pakistan has trade relations with major economic powers of the world, but the exports of the country are limited to the traditional items or raw material. Most of the foreign businessmen are interested in the supply of raw material from Pakistan to their industrial units. Nevertheless, the local entrepreneurs have also confined themselves to the domestic markets and took little interests in taping the consumer markets in African and Asian countries. The products made of the Pakistani raw materials are imported back to the country as value added goods at expensive prices. France is the seventh largest economy in the world with gross domestic product of more than $2.4 trillion. Pakistan has huge potentials to offer investment opportunities not only to France, but also other economies of the world.
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The current political uncertainty in the country has severally damaged economic environment of the country and interest of the French businessmen in Pakistan is a good omen. However, the total trade volume between the two countries is less than one billion dollars which can be enhanced to five billion dollars if business to business cooperation is enhanced. There is also need to lower dependence on the export of mere raw material.
