ISLAMABAD: H.E. German Alejandro Ortega Almeida, Ambassador of Ecuador visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry to exchange views with business community for further enhancing bilateral trade and economic relations with Ecuador and Pakistan.
Speaking at the occasion, he said that his country wanted to increase trade relations with Pakistan as both countries could do trade in many items. He said that Pakistan could achieve better access to South American markets by developing close cooperation with Ecuador. He said lack of direct contacts between the private sectors of Ecuador and Pakistan was the main reason of nominal trade between the two countries and stressed that both should focus on frequent exchange of trade delegations to explore new areas of mutual cooperation. He assured that his Embassy would fully cooperate with ICCI in bringing private sector of both countries closer that was important to improve two-way trade.
In his welcome address, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan considered Ecuador significant to its growing demands of opening up new avenues of cooperation and investment opportunities for businessmen. He said that many sectors of Pakistan’s economy including infrastructure development, manufacturing, exploration of oil, gas and minerals, energy, construction, information technology, engineering & automobiles offered great investment opportunities while the government has offered attractive incentives to foreign investors. He stressed that Ecuador’s investors should visit Pakistan to explore investment in areas of interest.
He said that CPEC has create many new opportunities for investment and JVs in Pakistan. Moreover 9 Special Economic Zones would be established in Pakistan under CPEC and stressed that it was the right time for investors of Ecuador to focus on Pakistan for business opportunities. He assured that ICCI would like to work with the Embassy of Ecuador for improving bilateral trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Ecuador.
Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI said that by developing close cooperation with Pakistan, Ecuador could gain better market access to South Asia, Middle East and Central Asia, thus focus on Pakistan would bring multiple benefits to its economy, they concluded.
