ISLAMABAD: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Abdul Razak Dawood has said the incumbent government was giving foremost priority to promote and expand business and trade with the African countries.
He was addressing the Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference in Lahogs, Nigeria, according to a message received here.
The conference was very well attended by businessmen and officials from ECOWAS member states specially Nigeria.
Abdul Razak Dawood declared that Africa was “a promising continent and land of opportunities”. He also called for closer economic ties with Africa to harness mutual benefits in trading activities with Pakistan.
According to Dawood, until now, Africa has been a distant frontier for Pakistan, economically, with the trade volume not very high.
It has hovered around only three billion dollars, but the good news is, ever since we created the ‘Look Africa Policy’, our trade is increasing. Exports to Africa in first four months have increased by 21 percent.
“Soon after coming into power, the Prime Minister of Pakistan took the initiative and asked the ministry of commerce to look at regional connectivity and, in particular, look at Africa.
“As a result of that, we developed a ‘look Africa policy’ and we analysed all the 54 countries of the continent and our study showed a promising continent and a land of opportunity.
“Our vision is to get closer and set a target of doubling our export in the next five years; we are looking at regional connectivity. We are not only looking at Africa. We are equally looking at Asia as well.
“We were trying to get positive results after the first conference in Kenya, but due to the pandemic, we could not come to this country until this time and we will be coming back to Nigeria next year,” he said.
He added that no cooperation was possible without the business men and women from Africa and Pakistan, urging governments of both groups to facilitate robust collaboration.
Speaking earlier, the High Commissioner of Pakistan to Nigeria, Muhammad Azam, said with global priorities moving away from geo-politics to geo-economies all over the world, national policies must focus on transformation via multiple facets. APP
