ISLAMABAD: A delegation of experts of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) working for various government organizations in Pakistan visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry to discuss reforms in key sectors of the economy. Yuko Tanaka JICA Export for Board of Investment, Mei Saito JICA Expert for Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, Shunichi Uchida JICA Expert for Engineering Development Board and Hiroko Hayashi of Asia Engineering Consultant Co Ltd were in the delegation.
The delegation members said that they were working as JICA Expert for BoI, TDAP and EDB in Pakistan and they wanted to get the input of private sector for further reforms in the key sectors of the economy. They said they were working for developing an investment guidebook for Pakistan in order to lure more local and foreign investment in the country. They said that the suggestions of business community would be given due consideration for marking them part of investment guidebook. They said they wanted automation of Pakistan’s industry so that it could achieve better growth. They said the Japanese companies needed easy access to Pakistani market that would further strengthen bilateral business relations between the two countries. Both sides discussed to organize a seminar at ICCI to highlight the potential areas of cooperation between Pakistan and Japan. The delegation assured to make suggestions and input of business community part of their recommendations for economic reforms in Pakistan.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that TDAP should prepare feasibility studies on trade/exports promotion with various countries and upload on its websites so that private sector could take benefit of them for promoting trade and exports. He said government should provide more funds to Pakistani Commercial Counsellors in foreign countries so that they could cooperate with private sector in identifying new markets for Pakistani products. He said that to improve gender parity, government should offer special incentives to women entrepreneurs for their economic empowerment and bringing them in the mainstream of economy. He said TDAP should focus on promoting trade with regional countries that offered great potential for exports. He said BoI should come up with attractive policies and incentives for foreign investors to bring more FDI in the country that would help in industrialization, improve exports and reduce dependence on foreign borrowing. He said EDB should focus on strengthening engineering industry to promote exports of engineering goods that had great demand in the world.
Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President ICCI said that instead of making Pakistan a trading hub, government should focus on industrialization. He said FTAs signed with various countries should also be revised as these FTAs have not fully benefited the private sector in promoting trade.
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