Italian official for deepening trade ties

Insists business community should work for enhancing trade volumes

KARACHI: Pakistan’s population of more than 200 million clearly indicates a huge potential that needs to be exploited, therefore, business communities of Pakistan and Italy should go an extra mile to create right opportunities for enhancing the existing trade volume, said Italian Trade Agency (ITA) Trade Commissioner Gianpaolo Bruno.

Exchanging views during a visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Bruno said, “We need to make efforts to improve existing bilateral trade relations between Pakistan and Italy.”

Identifying several areas of trade and investment cooperation, Bruno pointed out that immense opportunities for enhancing cooperation existed in different sectors including capital goods, consumer goods, machinery and medical and pharmaceutical products.

“Business communities of the two nations can partner in many areas and generate value for the people,” he added.

Referring to the food sector, the Italian trade official emphasised that Pakistan needed to upgrade its food value chain and improve quality of Pakistani food in order to enhance its exports to the European market where stringent regulations were followed.

Commenting on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Bruno was of the view that Pakistan needed to uplift economic development if it wished to achieve targets of Vision 2030 for the energy sector.

“Italy can cooperate in both conventional and renewable energy projects, which will strengthen the energy generation capacity of Pakistan from not just oil and gas but also from non-conventional sources,” he said.

He noted that Pakistan relied on the Indus basin water system, which was sometimes insufficient for the agriculture sector, hence it required investment and mechanisation.

“Italian companies can collaborate for mechanisation0 of the agriculture sector, which is vital for enriching the sector and adding value to the agricultural products which will be exported to Italy and other European countries.”

Speaking on the occasion, KCCI President Junaid Esmail Makda stated that Pakistan and Italy shared healthy and dynamic bilateral relations. “Italy has great economic potential and increasing bilateral cooperation with Pakistan in diverse areas of the economy will help both countries,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2019.

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