Haji Qurban Ali, Chairman of the Pakistan Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Capital Office, stressed the need to improve the economic and trade ties between the Italian business community and Pakistan in order to increase trade between the two sides.
As presently, Pakistan had a trade surplus in bilateral trade with Italy, as was observed in FY 2019-20, the local business community wants balance and to achieve trade balance, senior business leader said.
Chairman FPCCI said this while chairing a meeting in FPCCI’s Capital Office with Italy’s Ambassador to Pakistan Andreas Ferrarese along with senior business leaders including Capital House Coordinator, FPCCI Mirza Abdur-Reham and others.
Italian Ambassador to Pakistan, Andreas Ferraris In a call for meetings with Haji Qurban Ali, Chairman, FPCCI Capital Office Islamabad and Mirza Abdul Rehman, FPCCI Coordinator, visit FPCCI Capital Office Islamabad.
During 2019-20, Quban Ali said Pakistan’s exports to Italy were US$ 731 million, while Pakistan’s main exports to Italy included textiles, leather, rice, ethanol, including textiles, sets, worn clothes, cotton, apparel, crochet, cereals, raw hides and skins, leather, beverages, spirits and vinegar, plastics, footwear and gaiters.
During the meeting, he also suggested to the Ambassador that investments should be made in the potential areas of tourism, livestock, mining, transport and housing, in order to improve cooperation between the two countries.
The senior business leader said that Gilgit Baltistan (GB) Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and others related to CPEC will enhance the business and industrial cooperation between the Italian and Pakistani business sectors.
He said Italian investors and entrepreneurs might invest and start joint ventures with local industrialists in Gilgit Baltistan, SEZ, to add value to agriculture, livestock, mines, minerals and milk products.
He said the GB region is a gateway for CPEC to provide opportunities for Italian entrepreneurs to communicate with China and regional countries, including the Central Asian Republics (CARs), in order to benefit from their economies.
Though he said that there is enormous potential for hydropower in Gilgit Baltistan, it also helps any foreign investor with cheap energy available to the industrial sector and provides a safe business opportunity.
Qurban Ali also said that the GB region has tremendous tourism and livestock potential, as the region owns the world’s 8 largest mountains, including all raw materials for the manufacturing and agro-industrial sectors.
While addressing business people, Italy’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Andreas Ferrarese, said that Italy wanted to begin a new era of economic and commercial cooperation with Pakistan through technology transfer and upgrading of the textile industry in Pakistan.
He said that the green economy, technology transfer for the industrial sector, including the textile and agro-industrial sectors, construction, education and health sectors, are the main areas of emphasis in order to expand bilateral cooperation.
Through the green economy, the ambassador said, Italy wanted to cooperate with Pakistan in the fields of environmental sustainability, circular economy, resource conservation and management, habitat protection and recovery, water conservation and prevention of natural disasters.
The Italian envoy claimed that the new economic mission in Pakistan would be deployed to further promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation in various potential areas.
The new economic mission would initially be set up in major Pakistani cities, including Karachi and Islamabad, and would later be extended to other possible trade hubs in order to increase the economic and commercial integration between Pakistan and Italy, he said.
The Ambassador claimed that Italy is currently providing technical assistance in the field of agriculture and upgrading textiles through modern machinery, adding value to the agricultural, leather and marble sectors.
He said Pakistan was working to expand it to include agricultural products in the Italian market, including dairy and livestock, olives and olive products, plastics, processed foods and building. In order to facilitate bilateral exchange, Andreas Ferrarese underlined the importance of fostering cultural connectivity.
He stated that the areas where Italy could expand its cooperation with Pakistan were milk and livestock, olive and olive products, plastics, packaged foods and the building sector.
FPCCI Capital Office Coordinator Mirza Abdul Rehman warmly welcomed the Italian Ambassador to the Islamabad FPCCI Capital Office and offered the full support of the FPCCI Forum to enhance industry and trade ties between the two countries.
FPCCI Chairman Haji Qurban Ali and FPCCI coordinator Mirza Abdul Rehman showed the FPCCI Shield to the Ambassador at the end of the meeting.
