President for improving trade, economic ties with Kazakhstan

Sees potential of enhancing trade in agriculture and agro-products

ISLAMABAD:

President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday called for improving Pakistan-Kazakhstan trade and economic relations as there was a clear need to explore new avenues to boost trade for mutual benefit of the two countries.

Talking to Pakistan’s Ambassador-designate to Kazakhstan Nauman Bashir Bhatti, who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, Alvi pointed out that the potential of trade between the two countries was much greater than the current level of bilateral trade.

Both countries had great scope to expand cooperation in different sectors, he said and saw the potential of enhancing trade in the field of agriculture and agro-products, which needed to be tapped.

“Maximum facilitation should be provided to the investors of Kazakhstan to help set up their businesses in the already established Special Economic Zones across Pakistan,” he stressed.

“Pakistan is committed to developing sustainable and result-oriented relations with the Central Asian Republics (CARs) under its ‘Vision Central Asia’ policy, and enhancing regional connectivity with CARs constitutes a pivotal part of its policy towards the region.”

He stressed the need for keeping up with the momentum by taking forward the regional connectivity initiatives, such as the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran (KTI) railway link.

While emphasising the need to enhance people-to-people contacts with Kazakhstan, the president called for increasing cooperation in the field of higher education through joint degrees, and student and faculty exchange programmes.

He said the Virtual University of Pakistan was offering online education, which was cost-effective and students of Kazakhstan could benefit from it. He also told the ambassador-designate to work for improving the country’s image.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2023.

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