LAHORE: A high-powered sector-specific and well tailored delegation of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) will visit Indonesia in February 2018.
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid disclosed this, while talking to Ambassador of Indonesia to Pakistan Iwan Suyudhieamri here at Lahore Chamber on Monday. LCCI Vice President Zeshan Khalil, Amjad Ali Jawa, Shahid Nazir, Khamis Saeed Butt, Naeem Hanif, Dr. Shahid Raza, Khaliq Arshad, Aurangzeb Aslam, Muhammad Waseem, Ch. Zafar Iqbal, Kaleem Arshad, Adeeb Iqbal Sheikh and Muhammad Chaudhry were also present.
Malik Tahir Javaid said that visit of the LCCI delegation was of utmost importance as it would explore new avenues for trade, investment and joint ventures that would help achieve mutual target of sustainable economic development.
The Indonesian Ambassador assured his full cooperation to LCCI President to make delegation a great success. "Let's do work together for mutual benefit. It will increase mutual trade volume and help explore huge untapped potential exists between the two countries," he added. He said that there was a possiblity to collaborate in the various sectors.
The Ambassador also stressed the need for exchange of subject specialists and sector-specific experts so that both the countries could be able to learn more and more from each other's experiences. "Sharing of experiences has no match when we talk of any specific product or trade with any country so Pakistan and Indonesia must share their experiences in the larger interests of the business communities in the two countries," he maintained. Indonesian Ambassador also appreciated LCCI efforts for strengthening liaison with other countries.
Malik Tahir said that Indonesia and Pakistan had historical links and enjoying cordial relations, and people of both countries were close to each other and share special bondage of friendship and companionship.
He said that Indonesia was a major trading partner of Pakistan as among the top importing and exporting destinations of Pakistan, Indonesia came at 3rd and 31st places respectively. Traditionally, the balance of trade had been in favour of Indonesia. Last year, the imports made from Indonesia to Pakistan were almost 16 times greater than Pakistan's exports to Indonesia.
LCCI President said that bilateral trade figures fairly indicated the economic relations between two countries but these could be even greater if Pakistan was given more access to Indonesian market. Pakistan could not obtain much benefit from PTA signed between two countries and that was why its exports were not picking up.
Malik Tahir said that there was also a lot of scope for Indonesia to make investment in Pakistan. Indonesia had a fairly advanced petro-chemical, rubber, plywood, telecommunication and tourism industry and it could make direct investment in these industries and also enter into joint ventures with Pakistani counterparts. He proposed that these potential areas needed to be studied and monitored by Commercial Sections of respective diplomatic missions for promoting trade and investment between two countries.
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