ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Qatar this week discussed the “way forward” for a bilateral task force aimed at accelerating trade and investment cooperation, Pakistan’s commerce minister said, as Islamabad seeks to deepen economic engagement with Gulf partners and attract foreign investment.
The discussions between Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan and Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade Affairs, Ahmad bin Mohammed Al Sayed, come as Pakistan intensifies efforts to attract investment from Gulf countries to support economic growth and strengthen foreign exchange inflows while pursuing economic reforms under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
“We also deliberated on the way forward for the Task Force Group to accelerate mutually beneficial outcomes. Looking forward to translating discussions into tangible result,” Khan said in a statement posted on X, adding that the two sides reviewed bilateral trade and investment opportunities and explored avenues for closer economic collaboration.
No new trade agreements, investment commitments or project announcements were disclosed following the meeting.
Qatar is one of Pakistan’s most important economic partners in the Gulf. The Gulf state is a major supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Pakistan under long-term agreements that help meet the country’s energy needs, while hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis live and work in Qatar and contribute significantly to remittance inflows.
According to official Pakistani data, bilateral trade between the two countries has hovered around $3 billion annually in recent years, with energy imports accounting for a substantial share of the total.
Pakistan has increasingly looked to Gulf countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for investment in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, logistics, mining, agriculture and information technology.
