SIALKOT - Police Commissioner of Bolingbrook city of Chicago Talat Rasheed acknowledged the importance of Sialkot city due to its quality export goods, and pledged to make efforts at every level to further promote it globally.
He said that Sialkot and Bolingbrook have already been declared as sister cities by the local governments. Talat Rasheed played a pivotal role in this regard. Addressing a meeting of the exporters held at Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), he said that Sialkot was renowned at international level because of its industrial and export significance.
Talat Rasheed said that the status of the sister cities would help a lot to promote bilateral cultural, social and industrial activities besides establishing the strong business-to-business and people-to-people contacts between Sialkot and Bolingbrook.
He said that the status would help provide advanced municipal facilities for the local people. He said that the easy access of the Sialkot exporters would also be ensured to the international trade markets.
SCCI President Zahid Latif Malik presided over the meeting. SVP Abdul Waheed, Vice President Abid Ahmed Khawaja, Waqas Akram Awan and Mayor of Sialkot Municipal Corporation Tauheed Akhtar also attended the meeting.
Earlier, the local leaders accorded warm welcome to Mr Talat Rasheed upon his arrival at Sialkot. Talat visited several leading industrial units in Sialkot. He witnessed the different processes of production of the sports goods and surgical instruments. He also highly hailed the unique export culture of Sialkot and Sialkot’s socio-economic development.
He said that the Sialkot exporters have great potential to explore and capture the international trade markets by exporting their world class traditional and non-traditional export products.
In 2016, the Punjab and Chicago governments had declared the official status of “sister cities” for Sialkot and Bolingbrook, besides, naming after the local roads each other (one each in Sialkot and Bolingbrook).
SCCI Vice President Abid Ahmed Khawaja said that now the sister city relationship was being established between Sialkot and Bolingbrook following their global industrial significance. He added that a street/road in Bolingbrook would soon be named as “Sialkot Street” while a road in Sialkot has been named as “Bolingbrook Road”.
The SCCI President said that a special Sister City Relationship Agreement signing ceremony was recently held at the Pakistani Embassy in the US. Mayor Tauheed Akhtar said that the sister city status would help jazz up the pace of bilateral trade and industrial activities opening new vistas of socio-economic development in industrial cities.