SIALKOT
High Commissioner of Nigeria in Pakistan Mr Dauda Danladi said on Thursday that PML-N Chief and prime minister designate Nawaz Sharif has great potential to steer Pakistan out of the political and energy crises, besides making her a prosperous and developed country.
During informal talks in a meeting held at the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Nigeria high commissioner congratulated the Pakistani nation for “peaceful, transparent and fair” general elections held on May 11, 2013. He said that Nigeria was hopeful that Pakistan would soon touch the heights of success and development in the upcoming Nawaz Sharif regime.
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-N’s upcoming government would help to promote and strengthen the existing relations between Nigeria and Pakistan and open new vistas of boosting bilateral trade. He congratulated Mr Nawaz Sharif on his brilliant success in the elections.
Addressing the members of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said that Nigeria and Pakistan are enjoying the good relations and under the dynamic leadership of Mr Nawaz Sharif these ties would be further strengthened.
He revealed that there were bright opportunities of setting up joint ventures with Pakistan business community in different trade fields, as several Nigerian companies were showing keen interest in this regard. The meeting was told that Nigeria is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and 8th largest exporter and has the 10th largest proven reserves. Nigeria is an important country for Pakistan having an emerging economic power in the African Continent.
The High Commissioner informed the house that Nigeria had huge reservoirs of natural gas which are sufficient for generating electricity for the whole Asia. Sialkot is producing highly quality and standard surgical instruments and business community engaged with surgical industry should explore the Nigerian market, he said.
“There is great demand of surgical instruments in Nigeria and business community engaged with surgical industry should come forward and take initiatives to explore this untapped market. The foreign businessmen could invest in the field of agriculture, oil and gas and mineral sectors and the business community of Sialkot should invest in Nigeria,” he added.
“Nigeria possesses greater trade and investment potential in the areas of oil and gas, minerals and mining, agriculture and livestock, poultry and fisheries. Both the countries must cooperate in these and all other sectors of common interest to strengthen and enhance economic activity, important for progress and prosperity of the countries,” he said.
In his welcome address, SCCI President Sheikh Abdul Majid said that the private sectors of two countries could play a pivotal role in promoting bilateral trade and commercial ties by improving trade relations. “We need to focus on frequent exchange of trade delegations, increased liaison and trade information of potential buyers of each others’ products to identify more tradable products by giving priority to bilateral products and participating in sngle-country exhibitions,” he noted.
The Sialkot business community urged the Nigeria envoy to motivate the Nigerian business community to buy Sialkot-made products directly from Pakistan and from the other countries on high prices instead.
The Sialkot exporters were of the view that the Nigerian market has enormous demand for the items produced in Sialkot, saying that the Sialkot-made products were being supplied to Nigeria through other sources resulting in higher price and consumption of more delivery time. There was dire need to eliminate indirect sources, they said.
Sialkot business community urged the visiting Nigerian High Commissioner to motivate the Nigerian business community to buy directly from Sialkot-Pakistan to save money and reduce delivery time to strengthen and enhance bilateral trade.
During his visit to some leading industrial units in Sialkot, he also pledged that Nigeria would make an all-out effort to remove all the bottlenecks to promote the mutual trade ties between Pakistan and Algeria, as the Algeria was very keen to enhance the trade and business opportunities with Pakistan, making investment in all the sectors.