ISLAMABAD: Brazil was keen to boost bilateral trade with Pakistan as both countries have great potential to enhance trade in many items. This was said by H.E. Claudio Raja Gabaglia Lins, Ambassador of Brazil while addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. The Deputy Head of Mission of Brazil Embassy also accompanied him. The Envoy said that new governments have taken over in Pakistan and Brazil and hoped that they would focus on further strengthening trade ties. He said that Pakistan was producing many products which had great demand in Brazil and stressed that Pakistani exporters should make more efforts to enhance exports with Brazil. He said the volume of existing exports from Pakistan to Brazil could be further enhanced with strong efforts.
The Brazilian envoy said that many Pakistani products entering Europe were being resold to other countries including Brazil at higher prices and emphasized that Pakistani exporters should focus on promoting direct exports to achieve better results. He said that Brazil has great expertise in producing renewable energy as it was producing 65 percent of energy from water and was using ethanol as biofuels. He said Pakistan has enormous potential for hydropower while it was one of the larges sugar producer. Thus Brazil could cooperate with Pakistan for energy production from renewable sources including hydro and ethanol sources. He said Pakistan has also great potential for tourism and it should focus on improving road infrastructure and air service to its tourist resorts for attracting more tourists from around the world including Brazil. He assured that his Embassy would fully cooperate with Pakistani private sector in further enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries.
Speaking at the occasion, Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that bilateral trade of around USD 660 million between Pakistan and Brazil was not reflective of their true potential and both should focus on developing strong business linkages between their private sectors to explore all untapped areas of mutual cooperation. He said frequent exchange of trade missions and organizing exhibitions on reciprocal basis would greatly help in improving trade volume. He said that CPEC has created plenty of new opportunities for business and investment in Pakistan and urged that Brazilian investors should explore JVs and investment in CPEC and in other sectors of Pakistan’s economy.
Rafat Farid, Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI said that Brazil was quite strong in agriculture R&D and it should cooperate with Pakistan in improving its agricultural productivity. Zafar Bakhtawari, Mian Shaukat Masud, Khalid Malik and others also spoke at the occasion and gave many useful proposals for further improving trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Brazil.
