ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s envoy-designate to Kuwait Ghulam Dastgir visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and stressed upon the need of enhancing trade with Kuwait that offered good potential for export of many Pakistani products. He said Kuwait has tremendous potential, especially for Pakistani Halal food products and a serious attention towards this particular sector could give a quantum jump to our exports.
He discussed various options to enhance the level of cooperation between Pakistan and Kuwait in various fields of mutual interests including agriculture, energy, trade, commerce and investment. He said the share of Pakistan’s export to Muslim countries including Kuwait was not at par with real potential, however, with more focus and efforts by the private sector, it could be improved significantly.
He assured that Pakistan’s embassy in Kuwait would play its role for promoting business linkages and connectivity of Pakistan’s private sector with Kuwaiti counterparts and share trade related information with Pakistani Chambers so that our entrepreneurs could take advantage of potential opportunities for promoting business. He said ICCI should take its delegation to Kuwait to explore new avenues of mutual collaborations and his Embassy would facilitate it in B2B meetings with right counterparts.
Speaking at the occasion, Atif Ikram Sheikh, president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Pakistan and Kuwait enjoyed good relations, but despite great potential, the bilateral trade was not up to the required level. He said a new methodology was needed to increase Pakistan’s trade and exports with Kuwait.
He said many Pakistani businessmen were interested to explore Kuwait for business prospects, but Kuwait’s strict visa regime for Pakistani nationals was a major hindrance in pursuit of such efforts. He said this issue should be taken up at the higher levels to ensure easy visas for our entrepreneurs so that they could step up efforts for promoting trade with Kuwait. He said Pakistan Embassy in Kuwait should play proactive role for dissemination of updated trade related information with local Chambers as lot of business opportunities were often missed due to non-availability of timely information.
He said Pakistani missions should identify export potential of Pakistani products in foreign markets and pass on such study reports to local Chambers that would help in boosting up our trade and exports. He said Kuwaiti businessmen should be convinced to explore Pakistan for investment and joint ventures, especially in solar energy, coal mines, rice and other sectors.
