LAHORE - The Ambassador-designate to Bosnia-Herzegovina Lt Gen (Retd) Muhammad Yousaf on Friday urged Pakistani businessmen to make inroads in Bosnia to tap huge trade potential exists in Eastern European countries.
He said that interaction with the Bosnian businessmen would enable Pakistan private sector to get access to whole of Balkan region that mostly comprises Muslims.
The Ambassador-designate also informed the participants that there were strong signals that Bosnia was likely to join EU group in near future and any business in that part of the world would bound to win European Union.
He said that he would make all out efforts to turn Pakistan mission into Bosnia a match-making point for the business community in the two countries.
The Ambassador was talking to LCCI Vice President Kashif Anwar during a visit to Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Hasnain Raza Mirza and Muhammad Anwar also spoke on the occasion. He said that he would also utilize Bosnian media to highlight the soft image of Pakistan as in today’s world media is a strong tool to propagate information.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI Vice President Kashif Anwar said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry understands that there is a great scope for the construction industry of Pakistan to make business deals with the Bosnian business community.
Talking about two-way trade between two countries, he said that the business community could not materialize the actual potential for the greater benefits of each others.
He said that instead of making any headway in increasing two way trade, we are actually loosing the flow of trade which is significantly low.
He said that recent years show a dismal trade performance and special efforts are direly needed to turn around this situation.
He said that in year 2013, Pakistan exports to Bosnia were just USD 72,000 and our imports were only worth USD 68000. It does call to take serious steps at public and private level.
He said that Pakistan exports just electro-medical apparatus, articles of cutlery, gloves, mittens, leather garments and men’s suits etc. Our imports from Bosnia are flat rolled products of iron, printing machinery, conveyor belts, filtering machines and electro-medical apparatus etc.
He said that Bosnia imports pharmaceutical products worth USD 321 million, raw hides and skins worth USD 208 million, footwear worth USD 181 million, cereals worth USD 145 million and sugars & sugar confectionery worth USD 131 million.
He said that these are such items which can be exported to Bosnia from Pakistan at much competitive prices.