Ambassador of Maldives to Pakistan Ahmed Saleem has urged the Pakistani business community to focus on improvement of contacts with their counterparts in Maldives which would be proved favourable for the two countries. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Saturday. He said that unfortunately, bilateral trade volume between the two countries is squeezing. Maldivian businessmen are very much interested in enhancing economic cooperation and bilateral trade with Pakistan, he said. There is a huge potential in tourism sectors of the two countries, he added.
He said that tourism offers not only huge opportunities to Pakistan and Maldives but would also bring both the countries more close to each other. He said that Maldives has a huge potential of tourism and 1.5 million tourists usually visit Maldives annually. LCCI Senior Vice President LCCI Ali Hussam Asgher said there is also a huge scope of export of pharmaceutical products, rice, and Halal food industry from Pakistan to Maldives. Besides, some perishable items like fruits and vegetables can also be exported from Pakistan, he said. The Lahore Chamber has already declared export emergency to give a quantum jump to the national exports, he added.
Maldives and Pakistan have very low trade and investment relations. For instance, in 2018, the size of two way trade was just 6 million dollars out of which Pakistan's exports to Maldives were to the tune of $5.7 million. He said that from the last few years, the values of bilateral trade are also dipping. For example, in 2016, the size of two way trade was $12.7 million which remained on squeezing till last year to reach $6 million.
Major exports of Pakistan to Maldives are rice, pharmaceutical products, fresh fruits & nuts etc. While its major imports from Maldives consist of petroleum gas only. "It is a matter of concern that trade between Pakistan and Maldives remained very limited despite the fact the two countries are members of SAFTA agreement", he said and added that shipping cost between Karachi and Male is considerably higher as compared to shipping cost between Karachi and Colombo. This relatively high shipping cost is one of the factors behind low trade volume between the two countries. This is hence an imperative need of reducing the shipping costs, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019