Pakistan has envisaged a renewed “Engage Africa Policy” to strengthen its ties with all African countries and has decided to increase its diplomatic missions there in addition to opening its embassy in Djibouti owing to growing economic and political importance of the African region.
Exchange of parliamentary delegations would steer the plan for enhanced economic, political and defence cooperation not only between Pakistan and Djibouti but also with other African countries.
These views were expressed by Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani during a meeting with Djibouti National Parliament President and African Union Parliament Acting Chairman Mohamed Ali Houmed on Tuesday.
Houmed was leading a 12-member delegation to Pakistan on the invitation of the Senate chairman.
The Senate chairman said that Pakistan was looking forward to vibrant interactions to share experiences of public sector reforms, technical cooperation, infrastructure development and private investment with the African nations.
Sanjrani told the delegation that trade between Pakistan and landlocked Ethiopia took place through Djibouti and Pakistan needed special treatment for expeditious delivery of goods to Ethiopia.
He emphasised the need for devising a special package for Pakistani investors and entrepreneurs looking to invest and provide quality services in the Djibouti International Free Trade Zone (DIFTZ) as it had been attracting investment from China, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other countries.
Stressing the importance of enhancing ties, the chairman expressed the need for closer meteorological cooperation between Pakistan and Djibouti in order to monitor and track the movement of locusts in Red Sea, Arabian Sea and the Horn of Africa.
He pointed out that Pakistan was providing training facilities to Djibouti in the fields of diplomacy, banking and railways.
Sanjrani assured the delegation of continued provision of technical expertise in fields like information technology (IT), education, banking and diplomacy, and expressed keen interest in building sports linkages, especially between football teams of Pakistan and Djibouti.
He added that Pakistan was ready to provide technical and medical assistance to Djibouti in an effort to control the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Senate chairman emphasised that African countries were socially and politically very close to Pakistan and expressed the readiness to take measures for enhancing trade ties between the two sides.
He said that Djibouti and other African countries should explore prospects of investing in Gwadar, which was developing as a trade hub not only for the region but would also facilitate trade with the African countries.
He said that Djibouti, being centrally located in the African region, should cooperate in promoting trade through the channel.
Speaking on the occasion, Houmed agreed with views of the Senate chairman, saying that both countries were already very close and there was a need to establish parliamentary and trade relations on solid grounds.
He said that opportunities for the training of parliamentarians and parliamentary staff from African countries in Pakistan would further strengthen the relations.
The Djibouti official said that they were looking forward to benefitting from the economic opportunities being offered through the development of Gwadar as a regional port.
He said that through this cooperation, trade volume between this region and African countries might increase manifold.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2020.
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