President Sirisena’s visit to strength trade ties: Lahore Chamber
Wednesday, 8 April 2015 00:00
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DT (Lahore): President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to Pakistan will further strengthen economic ties between the two countries and help overcome poverty challenges, a top Pakistani business official said.
Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Ijaz Mumtaz in a statement said the visit of the Sri Lankan president was ample proof of the sincere and longstanding friendship between the two countries.
Mumtaz called for collaboration in construction, sugar, cement, paper and paper board, electronics, software development, food processing and preservation, dairy products, Liquefied Petroleum Gas cylinders and storage tanks, mineral mining, handicrafts, gem and jewellery and livestock breeding.
Relations should be translated into mutual trade ties. There is a vast scope for expansion of two-way trade between Pakistan and Sri Lank in the presence of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries to further strengthen their multifaceted and multi-sectoral cooperation in the field of education, culture, commerce and trade, science and technology and tourism.
Pakistan is a gateway to resource-rich central Asian states while Sri Lanka enjoys duty-free access to huge European and Indian markets.
He said the business community of the two countries should keep on exploring opportunities of mutual interest. Business delegations on sector-specific participants or product-specific group of entrepreneurs should be organised regularly. He said business houses and diplomatic missions could always join hands to yield tangible results.
He said that although there had been a substantial improvement in bilateral trade after the implementation of the FTA there were still some potential areas which needed to be explored.
He said the Lahore Chamber was making all-out efforts to increase the volume of two-way trade. However, there was a need for the Chambers of Commerce of both countries to come forward to create a win-win situation for each side.