Karachi - Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), President Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Senior Vice President KCCI, Muhammad Ibrahim Kasumbi and KCCI Managing Committee members held meetings with foreign delegates including Czech Republic, Indonesia, Spain, Morocco and Latvia who visited KCCI’s pavilion at Expo Pakistan 2015 Exhibition to look for possibilities of enhancing trade and undertaking joint ventures with the business community of Karachi.
An 8-member delegation from Czech Chamber of Commerce was led by its Vice President, Borivoj Minar while the Ambassador of Czech Republic in Islamabad, Miroslav Krenek also accompanied the delegation at the meeting. The delegation members informed that Czech Chamber, which comprises of more than 14,000 members covering almost all sectors of the economy, was keen to enhance cooperation with Pakistani counterparts and look for opportunities of improving trade between the two countries.
Members of Indonesian delegation were led by Maria Qazi, Commercial Consular of Pakistan’s High Commission in Jakarta, while exchanging views with KCCI office bearers, said that they were successfully doing business with Pakistani businessmen but were here to further explore new avenues of investment and look for more business opportunities.
Maria Qazi said that as the Preferential Trade Agreement between Pakistan and Indonesia has become operational, it has helped in improving trade volume to $20 million. She was of the view that trade volume was likely to improve further and may touch $30 million in the days to come.
Members of delegation from Spain, while highlighting the purpose of their visit, pointed out that they also were keen to enhance trade ties and strengthen business linkages with Pakistani business community. Many multinational companies have successfully running their businesses in Pakistan and Spanish businessmen are also looking forward to do the same. They said that businessmen of the two countries must come forward and play their role effectively towards strengthening trade relations between Pakistan and Spain. The Spanish people were keen to enhance business-to-business and people-to-people contacts with Pakistan while Pakistani workers in Spain are also doing a commendable job by working dedicatedly in Spain.
The delegation members further told the meeting that security and negative perception about Pakistan was terribly hindering development of relations between the business communities of the countries whereas Pakistan needs to raise awareness about its products and services in various Spanish markets.
Members of Morocco delegation also expressed their willingness to enhance trade with Pakistan as the country offers immense opportunities for investing and undertaking joint ventures in various sectors of the economy.
Latvia delegation, while highlighting the purpose of their visit, stated that they were here to facilitate their businessmen and look for ways and means of how to improve trade ties with Pakistan.
President KCCI, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, while exchanging views various foreign delegates, highlighted the overall performance of Karachi city which contributes more than 65 percent of revenue to the national exchequer. He underscored the need to clarify a number of misconceptions about Karachi which was negatively being portrayed. “As you must have also witnessed that the ground reality was contrary about the law and order situation which is not that bad. The overall security situation of Karachi can be compared with any of developed cities around the world who also face similar issue of street crimes”, he added.
Senior Vice President KCCI, Muhammad Ibrahim Kasumbi stated that overall climate of doing business in Pakistan has improved to a certain extent and was likely to improve further in the days to come.
He said that Pakistan offers immense investment opportunities and foreign delegates can look for investment opportunities and joint ventures which would surely create and win-win situation for everyone.