A 17-member business delegation of Belarus visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry to hold B2B meetings for exploring possibilities of business collaborations. The delegation was representing various fields including production of agricultural machinery, textiles machinery, heavy duty vehicles like trucks, buses, industrial machinery and many other sectors.
Speaking at the occasion, Dennis Kozlov, Head of Belarusian delegation said that Belarus was looking for markets and considered Pakistan an important country for business partnerships. He said the visit of President of Belarus to Pakistan in May and Prime Minister of Pakistan to Belarus in August this year along with signing many MoUs reflected the keen interest of leadership of both countries to further strengthen bilateral trade and economic relations. He said the purpose of our visit to Pakistan was to explore opportunities for investment and joint ventures. He said Belarus has established Free Economic Zones and Pakistani businessmen should visit Belarus to find out investment opportunities in these zones. It was agreed that Islamabad and Belarusian Chambers of Commerce and Industry would develop close cooperation to facilitate the connectivity between private sectors of their countries. The delegation also gave presentations about their companies and products.
In his welcome address, Atif Ikram Sheikh, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that Pakistan and Belarus had commenced bilateral relations in 1960s when the collaboration for import and assembly of Belarusian tractors in Pakistan was started. However, the bilateral trade between the two countries was quite low as compared to available potential and there was a need to redouble efforts for improving two-way trade.
He said both countries have potential to enhance trade relations in many areas including agriculture, energy, automobile, industrial machinery, IT, steel, furniture and many other sectors. He said Pakistan could export many products to Belarus including textile products, fruits & vegetables, food products, leather goods and others.-PR