LAHORE - Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has stressed the need for a well-coordinated strategy to enhance the volume of trade between Pakistan and Australia.
LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashari was talking to High Commissioner-designate to Australia Naela Chohan here on Thursday. LCCI former Senior Vice President Abdul Basit, Honorary Consul Saleem Ghouri, EC members Talha Tayyab Butt, Raja Hamid Riaz and Zafar Mahmood were also present on the occasion.
The LCCI President said that the commercial sections of all the embassies abroad would have to play an active role for giving quantum jump to Pakistan’s exports. Engineer Sohail Lashari has been working to explore avenues between the two countries to expand trade and investment, particularly through exchange of delegations. Engineer Sohail Lashari said that the trade figures show that our bilateral trade is modest as well as erratic. Although our exports to Australia are increasing but considering the size of Australian market, it is just insignificant.
He said that traditionally, the balance of trade is in favour of Australia and still there is a lot of gap between imports and exports figures. He  said that commercial section of Pakistan High Commission in Australia could play instrumental role in this regard. We are eager to maintain direct working relations with them and also look forward to receiving trade inquiries on regular basis. He said that Pakistan is facing critical situation with regard to maintaining reasonable level of Foreign Direct Investment. Pakistani High Commissioner could certainly play a role in convincing Australian investors to consider Pakistani for direct investment and joint ventures in the projects involving transfer of technology.
High Commissioner designate to Australia Naela Chohan while speaking on the occasion said that she had already gathered the required data after having meeting with various export related institutions and would expedite coordination with Chambers in Pakistan. She said that all the institutions in Pakistan would have to work with Pakistan’s foreign mission abroad to increase exports and to enhance foreign investment in Pakistan.