Pak-Palestine urged for cooperating with private sector to enhance bilateral trade

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Thursday urged the governments of Pakistan and Palestine to cooperate with private sectors for promoting trade and investment relations between two brotherly countries.

It said that as their current volume of bilateral trade was quite negligible compared to the actual potential of both countries.

Addressing a zoom meeting organized by the Embassy of Palestine to explore trade and investment opportunities between Pakistan and Palestine, President ICCI Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that many Pakistani products including Basmati rice, pharmaceuticals, IT, sports goods, textiles, marble products and others could find good market in Palestine.

He emphasized that strong business linkages between the private sectors of both countries were important to explore all untapped areas for promoting trade and investment on reciprocal basis. ICCI members Nasir Qureshi and Fazal-e-Hanan briefed the Palestinian side about the state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities of Pakistani pharmaceuticals companies that were exporting their quality products around the world. Karim Aziz Malik former Senior Vice President ICCI apprized the Palestinian side about the high quality Basmati rice of Pakistan that was being exported to around 28 countries including Japan.

Ahmed Rabei, Ambassador of Palestine welcomed the participants to the zoom meeting and said that it was the best time to explore the opportunities for promoting trade and investment relations between Palestine and Pakistan.

He also thanked Pakistan for providing training and other support to Palestine in various fields and said that Palestine wanted to enhance its economic relations with Pakistan.

Khalid Mosleh of the Federation of Palestine Chambers of Commerce and Industry stressed that all possible channels of trade should be explored to enhance bilateral trade between Palestine and Pakistan.

He said that both countries should focus on exchange of trade delegations and participation in each other’s exhibition for promotion of bilateral trade and investment.

He said that Palestine has the potential to export many products to Pakistan including olive oil, dates, soaps, sweets, marble stones, aluminium and chemical products.

Engineer Barraq Jumma Director Projects Ministry of Health of Palestine and Dr. Ezz El Din Abu Aqrqoub Director General International Cooperation Ministry of Agriculture of Palestine showed interest to enhance cooperation with Pakistan in agriculture and health sectors.

They said that Palestine was interested in importing high quality pharmaceutical products of various diseases and Basmati rice from Pakistan.

They said that Pakistani investors should explore JVs and investment opportunities in Palestine.

They said that a delegation of Arab entrepreneurs including Palestine was planning to go to Pakistan after Covid-19 pandemic for exploration of business prospects with Pakistani counterparts.

Both sides also discussed many other areas to strengthen trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Palestine.