LAHORE: All out efforts would be made to enhance Pakistan’s share in Malaysian imports of 163.4 billion.
These views were expressed by the LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid while speaking at a dinner hosted by Pakistani High Commissioner in Malaysia Nafees Zakaria in honor of the LCCI delegation that moved to Malaysia from successful Indonesian visit.
The LCCI president said that Pakistan and Malaysia have close and cordial relations since long and this relationship is growing and strengthening with the passage of time but this should be reflected in mutual trade and economic ties.
He said that Pakistan’s major exports to Malaysia are cereal, textiles and clothing, rice, vegetables, seafood (fresh, chilled and frozen), chemical and chemical products whereas major imports from Malaysia are palm oil, chemical products, electrical and electronic products. Other exports from Pakistan to Malaysia include fish, potatoes, onion, maize, cotton yarn, woven fabrics, synthetic staple fibre, bed-linen, electrical apparatus for line telephony and parts and accessories, whereas other imports from Malaysia are rubber, wood, synthetic filament yarn, insecticides, automatic data processing machines and parts and accessories.
He said that China, Singapore, Japan, USA, Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia are the major trade partners of Malaysia. It is a bit discouraging that Pakistan is not in this list despite good relations with Malaysia and having best-of-the-best products in the world. He suggested establishment of display center for Pakistani products in Pakistani embassies abroad to grab the attention of foreign buyers.
The LCCI President said that the balance of trade has always been in favour of Malaysia and this situation is prevailing. Over the last five years this gap is constantly closing but still the total imports from Malaysia are six times of our exports to Malaysia.
He said that Malaysia and Pakistan have already signed a Free Trade Agreement which came into effect in January 2008. It has to be taken seriously that we have failed to take some advantage of this FTA. It provided us good platform to be utilized for a win-win situation but Pakistan achieved far lesser than its potential.
He said that the business community is trying its level best to make good use of FTA but there has to be some support provided by the Ministry of Commerce and especially commercial section of our High Commission in Malaysia. He said that we want to acquire some justifiable share in trade with Malaysia. There is a huge potential of exporting Pakistani rice, fresh fruits like citrus and mango to Malaysia.
Malik Tahir Javed said that the FTA does provide our exporters certain edge in the form of duty relief on fruits and vegetables etc. but due to knowing little about the packaging and certain requirements related to certification of food items, they cannot make full utilization of these opportunities. He said that joint ventures in the fields of livestock & dairy, food processing, energy, chemicals, Halal products and especially in light engineering can further strengthen the trade ties between two countries. He said that we need to develop good liaison with our Mission in Malaysia in order to overcome all the challenges involved in enhancing exports to Malaysia.
Pakistan High Commissioner to Malaysia M. Nafees Zakaria lauded the efforts of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry saying that LCCI is leading from front. He urged Pakistani businessmen to evolve strategy to tap huge potential that exists in Malaysia.
He said that he would make all out efforts to turn Pakistan mission in Malaysia into a match-making point for the business community in the two countries. He said that he would also utilize Malaysian media to highlight the soft image of Pakistan as in today’s world media is a strong tool to propagate information.
The delegation members Shahid Nazir, Awais Saeed Piracha, Muhammad Wasim, Haseeb Khawar, Shabbir Bhatti, Malik Muhammad Islam, Muhammad Farooq, Mian Faisal Majeed and Muhammad Arshad Bhatti also expressed their views about Pak-Malaysia trade relations.
