Pakistan and Italy Monday agreed to increase the trade volume to real potential and stated that existing trade volume of $1 billion was below the real potential. Parliamentary Secretary on Finance, Rana Muhammad Afzal said the government is working on a strategy to increase the trade volume with Italy to $1.5 billion by the end of current fiscal year from existing $1 billion.
Speaking at a joint news conference along with Italian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ivan Scalfarotto after the 2nd session of Pakistan-Italy Joint Economic Commission, Afzal said the discussions with Italian remained very positive. The Italian deputy minister said the two countries need to increase the trade volume, adding the Pakistani government should create healthy business environment for his country''s businessmen. He further stated he is here to restart his country''s presence in Pakistan and "we are talking about partnership with privately owned companies."
In reply to a question, he said his country would influence the European Union (EU) for signing of free trade agreement (FTA) with Pakistan as Italy being a member of the EU can not sign a separate agreement with any country. However, he said in general terms his country is in favour of free trade agreement because these play a very important role in prosperity and progress of the world.
"There are huge investment opportunities in Pakistan and the Italian government would help Pakistan in renewable, agriculture, food, machinery and infrastructure sectors," he added. The parliamentary secretary finance said that four to five areas for investment have been identified during the meeting with visiting Italian delegation. These sectors, he said, are oil and gas, agro industry, construction of two dams and auto sector. Rana Afzal said Italians can produce a number of goods in Pakistan and Italian companies have also shown interest in Pakistan''s infrastructure sector due to Chain-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),"as Italy is seeing the CPEC opportunities very positively."
Afzal said Pakistan''s trade with Italy is positive with more exports from Pakistan to Italy as compared to Italian exports to Pakistan, he added. Earlier, the 2nd session of Pakistan-Italy Joint Economic Commission was held in Islamabad. The Italian delegation was led by Ivan Scalfarotto, Deputy Minister for Economic Development Italian Republic, whereas Pakistani''s side was led by Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Finance.
In the inaugural session of the JEC way back in March 22-23, 2006 in Rome, both sides had agreed to form four working groups, including energy and infrastructure development, trade and joint venture, agriculture and agro industries, and information technology collaboration.
After the passage of a decade, the second session of the JEC was held here on Monday along with the Italian co-chair while 25 official delegates from different departments of Italy also participated in the JEC. From Pakistan''s side, secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD), senior representatives from ministries of finance, foreign affairs, commerce, water and power, national food security & development climate change and communication, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Board of Investment (BoI) and provincial departments of agriculture also participated. During the JEC, both governments discussed the current status of economic situation, an overview of reforms, priorities, and bilateral, institutional and trade relations, identified areas of co-operation and agreed on the need to have greater economic and commercial exchanges for mutual benefits of the two countries.
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