LAHORE July 23 (INP): Business community Tuesday widely hailing the decision of United States President Donald Trump for enhancing volume of mutual trade up to twelve folds said Pakistan is an ideal and attractive investment destination coupled with large market endowed studded with a rich array of resources.
Founder Chairman Pak US Business Council, Senior Vice President SAARC Chamber and United Business Group (UBG) Central Chairman Iftikhar Ali Malik welcoming the joint statements of Donald Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan and the private sectors in both countries could increase trade manifolds by playing constructive role to further strengthen mutual trade and economic ties.
In a statement issued here today, Iftikhar Malik said overseas businessmen and investors should avail benefits from the economic and business opportunities provided by Pakistan’s strategic location and the connectivity to the broader regions.
He said both Imran Khan and Trump governments have economic agendas; therefore, there should be meaningful result oriented dialogues on trade and investment between the two countries. United States is the largest trade partner of Pakistan and over one million Pakistani expatriates are housed there.
He said Pakistan and US have good potential to enhance cooperation in energy, agriculture and education sectors and stressed that both governments should facilitate their entrepreneurs to strengthen collaboration for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes.
“Our other endowments include a vast pool of skilled human resource, a large agrarian base, tremendous tourism potential, diverse mineral wealth, and a developed IT infrastructure,” he added. He said both countries should focus on developing sector-specific cooperation between their private sectors that would help in increasing two-way trade.
Iftikhar Malik also highlighted the various bottlenecks being faced by the Pakistani business community in doing trade with USA and urged that US should remove all trade barriers including strict visa conditions for promoting bilateral trade up to real potential.
He said many Chinese investors were taking increased interest to Pakistan which reflected its great economic potential and urged that US should also encourage its investors to visit Pakistan for exploring business opportunities.
He said the visit of US investors to Pakistan will also send a positive signal to other foreign investors. He said Pakistan builds its partnerships based on mutual respect, sovereign equality and equal benefit.
He said Trump government should consider allowing duty-free access to Pakistani merchandise in lieu of Pakistan’s sacrifices in the US war against terrorism.
Economic stability of Pakistan through prompt direct market access to US is must to crush the terror in the region effectively. Aid or grant is undoubtedly remedy but has never been a substitute to trade, and market access will help rehabilitate and reconstruct the totally damaged basic industrial infrastructure besides generating jobs for millions of jobless people.
Appreciating sacrifices rendered by armed forces and Pakistani people, Iftikhar Malik said Pakistan condemns terrorism in all forms including state terrorism against people under illegal occupation.
He said that the war against terrorism that had engaged Pakistan for more than a decade was proving to be the biggest hurdle to the way of our economic growth. As per some careful estimates, our involvement in this effort to curb terrorism across the borders has caused losses to the tune of almost US$120 billion to Pakistan’s economy.
“We are among the few countries to have successfully turned the tide against terrorism and Pakistan remains ready to share its experience and expertise in counter terrorism. Shedding light on war against terrorism in Afghanistan,
He said Pakistan fully supports efforts for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistanthrough an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process and there was “finally a realization” that there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.
“Enduring peace and prosperity in South Asia will remain elusive until the main dynamic in South Asia is shifted from confrontation to cooperation,” adding he said it is important to seize the opportunities for peaceful resolution of outstanding disputes and collective endeavours for regional prosperity.”
He said that a new history is in the making as the country has left the difficult times behind because overall situation is far better than in the past and Pakistan is emerging as a hub of economic activities and gaining the attention of foreign investors.(INP)
