37 Italian businessmen hold B2B meetings with Pakistani counterparts

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LAHORE: As many as 37 Italian businessmen had B2B (business to business) meetings with their Pakistani counterparts and agreed to put joint ventures in place to boost mutual trade and economic ties.

LCCI President Abdul Basit, Italian Deputy Minister Ivan Scalfarotto, Minister for Industries Sheikh Allauddin and Minister for Finance Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha spoke on the occasion and hoped that strong relations between the businessmen of Pakistan and Italy help increase mutual trade volume which does not match the potential of the two countries, according to Chamber’s spokesman here Sunday.

LCCI President Abdul Basit said Italy was an important trading partner of Pakistan in Europe which came at the 5th and 3rd places, respectively, among the top exporting and importing destinations for Pakistan in European Union.

He said balance of trade favoured Pakistan and it was encouraging to see that volume of bilateral trade was being maintained over one billion dollar. Pakistani businessmen wished to maintain this favourable trend and also enhanced the volume of two way trade with the help and cooperation of individuals.

“The worth of bilateral trade was dollar 1.2 billion in 2014 which slightly decreased to dollar 1.1 billion in 2015.

The said fall in trade volume was due to slight dip in imports and exports during that period.

The exports of Pakistan decreased from dollar 767 million to dollar 618 million and imports contracted from dollar 470 million to 444 million,” he said.

He addedthat these figures did not reflect actual potential of trade between Pakistan and Italy.

Abdul Basit said, both the countries had big market size, so they would suggest that market surveys should be conducted to explore potential areas of trade.

He said that it was really good to see that Italian investors and businessmen were taking interest in fashion and marble sectors of Pakistan in particular.

If Italy could help Pakistan get the latest technology required in these sectors then they could create win-win situation for both the countries.

He said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had caught attention of entire world and many countries were expressing the desire to be part of this mega project.

He said that joint ventures would also provide an opportunity to Italian entrepreneurs to reap the CPEC benefits.

He said, Lahore Chamber would like to develop a close liaison with Italian Trade Commission office in Pakistan to exchange important information related to trade queries.

He hoped that Italian Embassy played an active role in projecting Pakistan as a safe place to invest and trade. —APP