KOTRA wants to expand its services, programmes in Pakistan: DG

KARACHI: Sung Jae Kim, Director General of Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Karachi Office, briefed FPCCI that KOTRA wants to expand its services and programmes in Pakistan.

He also emphasised that Pakistan can increase exports to Korea through quality assurance at par with Korean standards and this will reduce the bilateral trade deficit of Pakistan with Korea.

However, DG KOTRA added the Pakistan government should look into the pending LCs, shortages and delays of raw materials, profit repatriation and other foreign exchange-related issues of Korean companies in Pakistan.

Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, President FPCCI welcomed the initiatives of Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Pakistan for youth empowerment, skills development, world-class vocational training, productive efficiency enhancement and employment generation.

Irfan expressed his satisfaction that the productive capacity of Pakistani engineers working in automobile plants has increased substantially and their efficiency has also increased by 20 percent with the help of various trainings and vocational education programmes of KOTRA.

He stressed that in the total bilateral trade of $ 1.6 billion with Korea, Pakistani exports stand at merely $ 191, resulting in a massive bilateral trade deficit, year after year.

He proposed the KOTRA should help Pakistani exporters to improve B2B and chamber-to-chamber linkages with their Korean counterparts and enable them to find their expanded export market in value-added textiles, leather products, sports goods, IT & IT-enabled Services (ITeS), cement and related products, surgical goods and natural minerals.

Engr M A Jabbar, VP FPCCI, said the FPCCI is concerned at the shortages of raw materials at Lotte’s Pakistan plant, which is a Korea’s top multinational conglomerate and playing vital role in Pakistan’s industrial and economic development.

He apprised that there are at least 25 major Korean companies operating in Pakistan and generating a lot of economic activities and employment. We should facilitate and incentivise them so that more Korean companies can establish their presence in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023