German businessmen to visit Pakistan

Will seek collaboration in areas of agriculture, water and sanitation

ISLAMABAD: German Ambassador to Pakistan Bernhard Schlagheck has emphasised that Germany wants to further enhance bilateral trade relations and two business delegations are scheduled to visit Pakistan to explore collaboration with their Pakistani counterparts.

Interacting with business community at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), the ambassador elaborated that one German delegation would represent the water and sanitation sector while the other would be from the agriculture sector.

Schlagheck pointed out that bilateral trade between Pakistan and Germany amounted to over 3 billion euros with the trade balance in favour of Pakistan.

Pakistan was mostly exporting textile, leather products and surgical instruments to Germany but it could ship more products, he said. The German ambassador said over 280 Pakistani companies participated in the Heimtextil 2020 International Trade Fair held in Frankfurt, which was a record participation. He stressed that companies of both countries should actively participate in each other's trade fairs in order to further enhance bilateral trade and business relations. Pakistan should also organise more trade fairs to attract foreign investors, he said, adding that he had discussed with Pakistan's ambassador-designate to Germany the possibility of organising joint tours by Pakistani and German chambers of commerce to further strengthen trade cooperation between the two countries. The envoy said he was ready to cooperate with the ICCI in facilitating the visit of the chamber's delegation to Germany. Speaking on the occasion, ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed outlined the business and investment opportunities in Pakistan.

He said Germany had advanced technology and its investors should come to Pakistan with technology transfer to help establish joint ventures for producing value-added products that would boost exports.

He asked German investors to take benefit of these opportunities by investing in Pakistan. He cited IT and pharmaceutical sectors as the other potential areas for cooperation between the two countries.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2020.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.