BOI chairman’s visit to Turkey concludes

Istanbul, Islamabad discuss means to improve bilateral relations.

ISLAMABAD:

Board of Investment Chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla visited the Republic of Turkey as a special envoy of the president and the visit was primarily aimed to exchange the views on ways and means to improve the economic and commercial interaction between the two countries.

It was also stressed to remove any impediments in bilateral trade and investment with the Turkish leadership.

It was sought from both sides to make concerted efforts to meet the bilateral trade target of $2 billion by 2012.  Mandviwalla brought to the attention of Turkish President Gul; the negative impact of safeguard measures imposed by Turkey on Pakistan’s textile exports and underlined the need of urgently concluding a comprehensive preferential trade arrangement between both nations.

The Turkish leadership encouraged local businessmen to further expand their investment ventures in Pakistan, especially in energy and infrastructure sectors, Gul said.

In order to boost economic relations and people to people contact, the existing rail, road and air links shall be further improved.

Mandviwalla discussed these proposals in a meeting with Turkish Minister for Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Binali Yildirim.

It was agreed on the need on improving existing cargo train operations. Yildirim also suggested increasing the frequency of flights between the two countries. He said Pakistan was a brotherly country and there were many venues of collaboration in trade and investment.

Mandviwalla showed his optimism that the existing cargo train ‘Gul train’ running on a pilot-basis between Istanbul and Islamabad was a viable commercial venture. After increasing the frequency of this cargo train, both countries will commence passenger trains, Mandviwalla added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2012.