FAISALABAD. Muhammad Nafees Ziakria designated Pakistani High Commissioner to Malaysia has underlined the importance of bridging trade deficit between the two countries and said that in this connection the Pakistani business community has to play its pivotal and proactive role.
Addressing the members of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here , he said that Malaysia is a small country with total Population of about 30 million but every year 26 million tourists visit this country which is quite enough number to create demand of Pakistani goods of different kinds.
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Zikria said that he will try his optimum best to bring the business community of two countries closer to each other so that they could launch joint ventures for value addition which will also generate much needed economic activities in Pakistan. He said that he was also contemplating to set up a ‘display centre’ for Pakistani products in addition to establishing a cultural centre in Malaysia to cement the people to people contacts.
He requested President FCCI to identify specific products of textile chain enabling him to pave way for its exports to the Malaysian markets. He said that although Malaysia is itself a small market but through this brotherly Islamic country, we could have access to a big market of ASEAN. However, for this purpose, Government as well as business community would have to make concerted efforts with a strong commitment of patriotism. He said that 20% of Malaysian population belongs to Buddhists community. Pakistan has many religious sites for this Buddhists community but during last few years not even a single Buddhist visited Pakistan. He said that he will also try to exploit this important aspect of Pakistan to promote religious tourism for the Baddish community.
He told that he has planned to organize an exhibition of Pakistani products in April next year in Malaysia in collaboration with LCCI. He invited FCCI to join this initiative to market the Pakistan related products of Faisalabad. He further told that Malaysian government has ratified an agricultural agreement which will also help us to export agricultural products to Malaysian markets. However, Pakistan exporters must examine this agreement to explore new potential market of Malaysian for the export of agriculture products from Pakistan. He said Pakistan has potential to export fish and fish preparations but it is irony of fact that we failed to tap this potential.
