Business climate in Pakistan: security, energy, governance challenges still there: Inomata

Japan wants to increase its $1.6-2 billion bilateral trade with Pakistan where, Ambassador Hiroshi Inomata Friday said, the well-performing government still has to overcome challenges in three major areas: security, energy shortages and governance.
Tokyo, the third largest Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor to Pakistan after the United States and United Kingdom, has extended over 1.2 trillion yen to Islamabad on account of loan, grant and technical cooperation during 1954-2013. 1954 was when Japan had started its first official development assistance for Pakistan.
"Sometime next year I will try to bring the Prime Minister (Shinzo Abe) to Pakistan," Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Hiroshi Inomata told a gathering of English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP) after regretting that no Japanese premier had visited Pakistan during last decade.
Talking on Japan-Pakistan Relations, he said the bilateral trade balance ranged between $1.6 billion and $2 billion while net inflow of investment from Japan during FY15 was $70.9 million. This figure accumulated to $892 million during 1994-2015. Foreseeing a prosperous future for the young population of Pakistan, the Japanese envoy termed the size of Pak-Japan trade and investment as favourable for Japan but "not enough". His country, the ambassador said, had imported five tons of mangoes last year which grew to 80 tons this year. Next year, he said, Japan intended to import three million tons of mangoes from Pakistan, if the product stood qualitative.
Inomata said imported raw cotton from Pakistan was very much "indispensable" for the spinning textile industry in Japan but the Pakistanis producers should diversify their products using the comparative advantage they have in the face of a skilled workforce.
Starting his speech from "Assalam-o-Alaikum" and Urdu pleasantries, the Japanese ambassador also was appreciative of Pakistani textile industry delegates who he said recently visited his country for "networking and business dealings". Having ancient Gandhara civilisation, Pakistan' tourism industry, he said, also was good to attract tourists from Japan and India. "There are still lots of areas where we can improve or even promote cooperation," he said.
But, Inomata said, the Government of Pakistan still had to deal with the challenges relating to security, energy and governance. Inconsistent government policies, he warned, might keep Japanese companies away from Pakistan where local business environment must be conducive.
To a question, the envoy said Karachi Circular Railway was a "along long overdue project" facing several bottlenecks to start work on. "We are now waiting for the local and central governments' green light to go ahead," he said. His country, Ambassador Inomata told a questioner, was engaged with its local public and private partners to work on "very very big projects" in Pakistan's energy, education, health and other infrastructure development sectors. Earlier, welcoming the chief guest ESUP President Aziz Memon said, "Our relationship with Japan go a long way back".