ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be awarded with with a doctorate degree by State University of Belarus as the PM will arrive in the Eastern European country on Monday.
Federal Ministers Rana Tanvir Hussain, Pervez Rashid and special assistant to PM Tariq Fatimi accompany Nawaz Sharif in this three day long visit.
Pakistan and Belarus have already decided to initiate joint ventures in textiles, pharmaceuticals and light industry to share the technological expertise and scientific advantage of one country with the other.
Modalities for these joint ventures were discussed in the meeting of First Pakistan-Belarus Joint Economic Commission.
These joint ventures will open new avenues for greater cooperation in much diverse fields through partnerships of private and public sectors. Both sides expressed their resolve to undertake concrete measures to enhance the volume of trade as the current trade figures are not reflective of its true potential.
Pakistan exported $15.23 billion worth of items to Belarus in 2014, 36% of which was rice, 9.27% light pure woven cotton, 10.03% styrene polymers, 7.43% edible preparations, 4.48% leather apparel and 4% citrus.
Pakistan’s imports from Belarus stood at $42.65 billion which mainly consisted of tractors (62.04%), artificial filament yarn (13.01%) and rubber tires (8.06%). Pakistan intends to correct this trade balance in its favor by exporting more value added items to Belarus. Tariff rationalization for this purpose was also sought during the bilateral meetings and JEC.
