ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on Wednesday, urged Pakistan’s envoys based in European countries to cultivate and broaden mutually-beneficial trade and economic partnerships with their host states, focusing on key goals of trade promotion, financial inflows, and investments.
According to the Foreign Office, the Foreign Minister chaired the fifth virtual meeting on economic diplomacy as part of the government’s economic outreach initiative.
The meeting focused on Europe and Pakistan’s envoys to France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Russia, participated in the meeting.
Highlighting the growing importance of geo-economics in international politics, the foreign minister underscored economic diplomacy as an essential part of modern diplomatic practice.
He stated that, in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Missions abroad were at the forefront of safeguarding and advancing Pakistan’s economic interests.
They played an important role in successful implementation of a range of measures including the Prime Minister’s “Global Initiative on Debt Relief” for developing countries, Prime Minister’s Economic Outreach Initiative (EOI), and the Roshan Digital Account.
Foreign Minister Qureshi encouraged envoys to cultivate and broaden mutually-beneficial trade and economic partnerships with the European countries, focusing on key goals of trade promotion, financial inflows, investments, remittances, tourism, and technology transfer.
Underscoring the importance of consolidating and expanding Pakistan’s economic outreach with Europe, Foreign Minister Qureshi stressed the need to diversify exports to the EU countries to fully utilise the benefits under the GSP Plus status.
He further emphasized the need to constructively engage with Parliamentarians in Europe and EU Parliament with a view to maximising avenues for economic outreach and collaboration.
He appreciated the increased inflow of investment from Europe into Pakistan, and urged the Missions to proactively engage with their interlocutors to showcase the investment potential of the country.
Highlighting the government’s continued efforts in this regard, the foreign minister highlighted Pakistan’s impressive improvement in Ease of Doing Business ranking. Pakistan had also secured 6th place among world’s top 10 business climate improvers. Qureshi instructed the envoys to identify and address bottlenecks that hinder expansion of economic collaboration with host countries. The envoys were also asked to identify sectors where Pakistan could enhance its economic footprint in Europe.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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