KARACHI - The Pakistan Southern Africa Trade Federation (PSATF) delegation, led by its chairman Muhammad Rafiq Memon, had a productive meeting with Zubair Motiwala, CEO of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), on Monday. During the meeting, the PSATF delegation discussed Africa potential of 3.1 trillion dollars economy versus Pakistan exports to Africa which is just about 2.0 billion dollars. The main hurdles to exports from Pakistan are high duty structures.
It was informed in the meeting that Pakistan has presence in only 20 countries out of 54 countries in Africa whereas Africa is an opportunity with 3.1 trillion-dollar GDP which is expected to reach the mark of $26 trillion by 2050, according to the report of the World Bank. The chairman of PSATF stressed the need of signing of PTA and FTA with top 10 economies in Africa and other high growth countries to increase the trade volume between Pakistan and Southern Africa and also East Africa. He said that the PASTF will strive to achieve this target of $50 billion exports of Pakistan products and services to Africa region by 2030. It is doable for which the government of Pakistan must have a strong engagement policy with leading African economies. It was also decided in the meeting that a joint press conference with PSATF and CEO TDAP will be organized in near future to create awareness about Africa Opportunity. Rafiq Memon also highlighted the recent productive discussions held with the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Board of Investment (BOI) in Islamabad, focused on PSATF’s trade and investment promotion activities.