ISLAMABAD:President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik on Tuesday
highlighting significance of prime minister’s upcoming visit to Turkey said it would help further cement bilateral ties between the two brotherly countries.
Iftikhar said the existing mark of $1.1 billion Pak-Turk bilateral trade could be taken up to $5 billion annually by exploiting the true potential areas from both sides.
Talking to a delegation of young women entrepreneurs led by Rameen Kashif, the recipient of ‘Best CEO award’, he said during the last 25 years, the annual export of Pakistan to Turkey had increased only 4.01% from $148m in 1995 to $394m in 2020.
He said that Turkey had much stronger industrial base as compared to Pakistan and the interests of the Pakistani manufacturing sector especially in auto assembly and auto parts industry needed to be protected.
Iftikhar Ali said Turkey and Pakistan with mutual understanding could increase bilateral commercial and economic ties.
He said during the last visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Pakistan, Ankara and Islamabad agreed to formulate a declaration of an economic framework to increase bilateral trade volume to $5 billion.
Pakistani exporters, he said, must encash the sincere offers available for them in the Turkish markets.
The delegation head Rameen Kashif hoped that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for his known commitment, would bring more Turkish investors to Pakistan to invest in special economic zones.
She said there are 158 companies with Pakistani capital in Turkey. The total investment of these firms had reached over $100 million, while 17 Turkish companies were operating in Pakistan, she concluded.
