May 20 , 2015
News
Japan embassy and LCCI to explore bilateral trade potential
*Japanese envoy urges businessmen to play their role in improving economic and social ties between the two countriesLAHORE: Japanese Embassy and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) would conduct joint research to identify areas of economic cooperation between the two countries.
This was agreed at a meeting between Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Hiroshi Inomata and LCCI President Ijaz Mumtaz at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.
Honorary Consul Aamir Sherazi, LCCI EC members Shahzad Ahmed, Talha Tayyab Butt, Dr. Quratul Ain, Kamal Mahmood, Asad Paganwala, Mian Afzal and former president Sohail Lashari were also present.
The ambassador said that Japan would continue to support Pakistan and strive to deepen mutual understanding through economic exchanges. He said that there was a great scope for establishing joint ventures between business communities of the two countries.
He said that that his country is extending cooperation in different sectors for public facilitation and development of Pakistan. He said that Japanese agency JICA is extending cooperation in health, education and other sectors in Pakistan.
He said that Japanese companies were already entered in joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts in vehicle assembly and various other sectors. He said that more Japanese companies were interested in investing in Pakistan. He urged the business community to play its role to improve the economic and social relations between the two countries.
Mumtaz said that Pakistan gives great importance to its relations with Japan, as it is an important friend. He said that Japan is one of the trillion economies of the world and ranked third in the list of GDP-wise largest countries and can play an important role in the economic development of Pakistan.
Mumtaz said that Japan was a major donor to Pakistan as well as an important trading partner. He said that among the top import and export destinations of Pakistan, Japan comes at 8th and 25th places respectively. Moreover, the bilateral trade has been averaging around $2 billion. The balance of trade heavily favours Japan as Pakistan’s share in two-way trade is just 10%.
The LCCI president said that Pakistan has strong economic and commercial ties with Japan but these relations need to be capitalized to attain greater share in Japanese market.
Mumtaz said that organisations like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in social sector, Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in promotion of trade and investment are playing their due role in Pakistan but we need to innovate the ways to produce better results.
“The best way for us is to identify the areas where we can cooperate with each other. It goes without saying that the role of Japanese Embassy is of key importance,” he added.
LCCI president said that frequent exchange of sector-specific delegations could make the representatives of Japanese private sector explore the opportunities of trade and investment in Pakistan.
He said that Pakistan is struggling to address the energy crisis. “There is a huge scope in the field of power sector. We direly need technologies in renewable/alternate energy, solar energy and wind energy.”
Ijaz Mumtaz said that it is an era of out-sourcing. Pakistan has been gifted with a large number of labour resources who are educated, skilled and hardworking. He said that Pakistan would welcome any initiative taken to transfer technology to Pakistan for assembling purposes. It would be beneficial for both the countries, he added.
He also invited Japanese investors to invest in Pakistan and avail the liberal incentive packages being offered by the government to the foreign investors.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk