ISLAMABAD: A delegation of US officials has visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to discuss ways for enhancing trade between the two countries.
LCCI President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, during a meeting with US delegation, said that America should provide easy market access to Pakistan’s traders in compensation of huge economic losses due to fighting war against terrorism.
The delegation included Beney J Lee, Desk Officer for Pakistan in Washington, Department of State, USA along with David Ryan Sequeira Economic Officer and Nasir Hamid Rao Economic Advisor, Embassy of US in Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Beney J Lee said US was encouraging its private sector to partner with Pakistani counterparts for investment and joint ventures. She said Pakistan and US have good potential to enhance cooperation in energy, agriculture and education sectors and stressed that both governments should facilitate their entrepreneurs to strengthen collaboration for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.
She said US was ready to help Pakistan in innovative researches in the fields of education, agriculture and other sectors. She said both countries should focus on developing sector-specific cooperation between their private sectors that would help in increasing two-way trade. She said US was interested in capacity building of Pakistani entrepreneurs through trainings. She assured that the trade barriers pointed out by ICCI would be brought into the notice of relevant US authorities for redress with the aim to improve bilateral trade.
Muzzamil Hussain Sabri highlighted the various bottlenecks being faced by the Pakistani business community in doing trade with USA and urged that US should remove all trade barriers including strict visa conditions for promoting bilateral trade up to real potential.
He said many Chinese investors were taking increased interest to Pakistan which reflected its great economic potential and urged that US should also encourage its investors to visit Pakistan for exploring business opportunities. He said the visit of US investors to Pakistan will also send a positive signal to other foreign investors.
