Malaysia should enhance trade with Pakistan: Butt

Karachi, June 08, 2013 (PPI-OT): Malaysia is participating in Expo Pakistan 2013 in September in a big way; this was stated by Norsalan Hadi Abdul Kadir Consul (Trade), who called on acting President FPCCI Mr. Azhar Sayeed Butt the other day June at the Federation House.

During the meeting, President FPCCI stated that Pakistan is maintaining close trade and bilateral relations with Malaysia since its inception and have been close trade partners. He further stated that even though Malaysia counts Pakistan amongst its closest trade partners, there should be more efforts towards enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries. Imports /exports remain confined to a few commodities only and there are a lot of avenues to be explored as far as bilateral trade is concerned. Both sides should take steps to diversify their trade portfolio with each other and provide special incentive to exporters/importers.

He said that Malaysia should open its doors to expand Pakistan’s exports. He extended full support of FPCCI which is the apex trade body in Pakistan, for organizing participation in Expo Pakistan, and along the sidelines of the Expo, emphasized the need for increasing the number of trade delegations’ visits between the two countries. He stated that incoming delegations should consist of buyers for items such as surgical equipment, gloves, sports goods, pharmaceutical products, seafood, textile fabric etc.

Mr. Bashir Janmohammad Chairman Pakistan Malaysia Business Council while presenting his thanks to the honorable Consul General, and said there is a lot of issues to be addressed if we want to see Pakistan-Malaysia trade register a significant increase.

He said first of all we should address the imposition of export cess on palm oil exports from Malaysia, the commodity has been made dearer and Pakistan importers are looking towards other sources. Chairman Pak-Malaysia Business Council further said there he had travelled to Kuala Lumpur with a strong Trade Delegation of Pakistani businessmen under the leadership of former CE TDAP Mr. Tariq Puri and they had stressed the need for intra-Government level cooperation to address such issues, but sadly there had been no movement from those quarters. He said until we have exchange of commerce/trade ministers and officials, bilateral trade cannot reach its true potential.

It was also suggested that a Display center should be opened in Kuala Lumpur for displaying of Pakistani palm oil products in KLCC.

For more information, contact:
Syed Masood Alam Rizvi
Secretary General
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI)
B-1, Federation House, Main Clifton Road,
Shahra-e-Firdousi,
Karachi-75600, Pakistan
Tel: 0092-21-35873691, 93-94
Fax: +9221 3587 4332
Email: info@fpcci.com.pk
URL: www.fpcci.com.pk