Early PTA to boost Pak-Indonesia trade: Gondal

ISLAMABAD - Early conclusion of Preferential Trade Agreement between Pakistan and Indonesia will enhance the bilateral trade. Indonesia is a potential market for our citrus & Irri-6 rice, Nazar Gondal, Minister for Agriculture and Food, has said. The minister said this while talking to Ishak Latuconsina, Ambassador of Indonesia in Pakistan, here on Monday. We ask for the early conclusion of the Preferential Trade Agreement which would prove to be a win-win situation for both of us. Our Kinnows export to Indonesia has reduced drastically owing to the increased custom duty by your country. The PTA would also enable you to regain the palm oil market here in Pakistan. We need to extensively increase our bilateral cooperation in agriculture sector and look forward to Indonesia for early responses, said the minister. The minister said that a Palm Oil Extracting Plant has been set up at Thatta with help of Malaysia that would be functional by the end of June this year. He invited the ambassador to visit the sight and motivate Indonesian business community from the private sector to invest in the palm oil production in Pakistan. The ambassador said that Pakistan and Indonesia are two Muslim brother countries and it is his keen desire to work for enhanced trade and cooperation between the two countries. He added that his top priority is to increase the volume of trade between Pakistan and Indonesia. The minister thanked the ambassador for the invitation from H.E. Mr. Suswono, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia for the upcoming Ministerial Conference to be held on March 11, 2011 on the occasion of fourth session of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food & Agriculture, scheduled in Bali from 14-18 March, 2011.

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