Pakistan is looking to increase its trade opportunities with various countries, such as India, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, reports Pakistan's Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan. According to the minister, Pakistan and India should focus on the removal of non-tariff trade barriers for facilitating trade.
Khurram also met with Omer Zakhilwal, the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan, and discussed issues regarding bilateral and transit trade.
The two sides agreed to hold a high-level meeting, involving all the stakeholders to discuss the issues faced by traders of both countries at the operational level.
He said that the Gawadar-Chaman Road built under the CPEC would be a short link to Afghanistan and the Central Asian countries.
Talking to the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Marzouk Al-Zahrani, the minister said that Pakistan would launch a grand marketing campaign in Saudi Arabia to create awareness about Pakistani products in the country.
Saudi Arabian investors are interested in investment and joint ventures in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy, such as food processing, and there are also opportunities to increase food and vegetable exports from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.
In his meeting with the Ambassador of Uzbekistan, Furkat Sidikov, the minister said that direct passenger and cargo flights from Lahore to Tashkent would start from July 20 this year and will operate twice a week.
The ambassador said this would help Uzbekistan import perishable goods, especially bananas and mangoes, from Pakistan, which it used to import from the Latin American countries.
